]/!/, 


THE  LIBRARY 


THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


The  Earth's 
Annular  System 


OR 


The  Waters  Above  the  Firmament 


THE  WORLD   RECORD   SCIENTIFICALLY    EXPLAINED 


BY  ISAAC  N.  VAIL 

AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  MISREAD  RECORD,"   "  BDBN*S  FLAMING  SWORD,' 
"ALASKA,  LAND  OF  THE  NUGGBT,  WHV?"BTC. 


jfourtf)  Edition 


"  Yet  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

—  Tennyson 


}3asaticna,  California: 

THE  ANNULAR  WORLD  COMPANY 

411  Kensington  Place 

1912. 


COPYRIGHT,  1902, 
BY  ISAAC  N.  VAIL. 


Engineering  5  ^CA  U 
athemati 
Sciences 


Mathematical      j     -k£x 
^  * 


PEEFACE. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1912,  Isaac  N".  Vail,  the 
author  of  this  book  and  the  originator  of  the  Annular 
Theory  of  Evolution,  died  suddenly  at  his  home  at  411 
Kensington  Place,  Pasadena,  Cal. 

About  the  first  of  December,  1911,  the  previous  edi- 
tion having  been  exhausted,  he  had  made  arrangements 
for  a  new  edition  of  this,  his  largest  published  work. 
Only  about  half  the  plates  were  finished  at  the  time 
of  his  death,  so  that  it  became  the  duty  of  his  daugh- 
ters, Alice  Vail  Holloway  and  Lydia  C.  Vail,  in  whose 
possession  he  left  all  his  published  and  unpublished 
writings,  to  carry  on  the  work.  This  volume  now  goes 
before  the  public  just  as  the  author  left  it. 

Isaac  X.  Vail  was  essentially  a  student,  modest  and 
retiring  in  his  nature,  and  with  but  little  of  the 
aggressiveness  of  either  the  propagandist  or  the  man 
of  business  that  would  have  pushed  his  views  before 
the  world.  In  his  later  years  he  found  increasing  con- 
tentment in  searching  out  material  to  be  used  by  those 
who  would  continue  the  work  after  he  had  left  it. 

No  one  realized  so  fully  as  he  the  far-reaching  re- 
sults and  revolutionary  effects  of  annular  thought  upon 
almost  all  departments  of  science  and  philosophy. 
With  this  realization,  and  with  a  confidence  and 
patience  born  of  a  knowledge  of  the  truth,  he  was  will- 
ing to  wait  till  the  world  was  better  prepared  to  accept 
his  ideas. 

He  knew  that  in  the  light  of  new  discoveries  old 
theories  must  fail,  and  that  in  time  the  Annular  Theory 

816743 


of  Evolution  must  gain  a  sure  foothold  in  the  young 
and  vigorous  minds  of  coming  generations. 

To  the  end  of  carrying  toward  completion  the  work 
begun  by  our  father,  our  lives  will  be  devoted,  and  as 
the  demand  arises  we  hope  to  give  to  the  public  further 
evidence  in  support  of  annular  evolution. 

We  undertake  this  work  not  only  with  the  feeling 
that  we  are  fulfilling  a  sacred  trust,  but  with  a  love  of 
the  work  for  itself,  and  with  a  profound  conviction  of 
its  importance  to  the  progress  of  science. 

While  we  may  be  able  from  time  to  time  to  present 
to  the  world  even  vast  accumulations  of  evidence 
gleaned  from  the  fields  of  geology  and  especially  myth- 
ology, we  can  do  but  little  more  than  suggest  to  more 
able  and  scholarly  minds  than  our  own  the  work  to  be 
done  in  the  fields  of  Philology  and  Biology. 

A  new  science  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  language 
will  have  to  be  written.  The  Darwinian  theory  of 
evolution  will  be  found  insufficient  and  will  have  to  be 
supplemented  by  the  Annular  Theory  of  organic  evolu- 
tion. Following  this  must  come  a  new  Ethnology  and 
a  modified  Sociology. 

It  is  with  the  hope  that  we  may  gain  the  attention 
of  those  who  are  able  to  do  better  work  than  we,  that 
we  now  send  forth  this  volume. 


ALICE  VAIL  HOLLOW  AY. 
LYDIA  C.  VAIL. 


Pasadena,  Cal.,  April,  1912. 


INTRODUCTION    BY   THE   AUTHOR. 

The  first  edition  of  the  "  Waters  Above  the  Firmament," 
or  "  The  Earth's  Annular  System,"  was  published  in 
pamphlet  form  in  1874.  The  chief  effort  of  the  author  at 
that  time  was  to  show  that  the  Deluge  of  Noah,  and  all  the 
"  Ice  Ages  "  were  caused  by  the  progressive  and  successive 
collapse  of  great  world-canopies  of  aqueous  vapor,  which 
were  the  last  remnants  of  a  Saturn-like  Ring  System,  or  a 
Jupiter-like  "  Cloud-Ocean,"  sent  to  the  terrestrial  skies 
when  the  earth  was  in  its  molten  stage.  In  that  edition  it 
was  also  shown  that  earth-canopies  were  competent  to  pro- 
duce all  the  tropic  eras  the  earth  ever  saw.  It  was  also 
pointed  out  that  world-canopies  trending  poleward  tended 
to  mass  themselves  in  the  polar  heavens,  and  fall  in  the 
Arctic  and  Antarctic  regions  as  vast  avalanches  of  snow. 

More  than  forty  years  of  research  along  these  lines  have 
more  than  justified  the  claims  originally  set  forth.  As  a 
practical  geologist  I  have  gathered  facts  from  the  earth- 
record  directly,  and  I  am  bold  to  aver  that  these  facts 
unquestionably  demand  a  revision  of  geologic  thought,  as  it 
stands  to-day.  The  tremendous  truths  of  world-evolution 
shine  all  the  more  perfectly  under  the  arc-light  of  annular 
earth-building. 

It  was  this  independent  research  in  a  very  wide  field  of 
thought  that  led  me  to  enlarge  the  pamphlet  of  1874  to  a 
book  of  400  pages  in  1885;  and  again  it  was  revised  and 
enlarged  in  1902 ;  and  I  have  been  greatly  encouraged  by 
the  fact  that  this  last  edition  is  now  used  in  some  of  the 
colleges,  and  in  at  least  two  universities  as  an  educator. 

When  the  first  volume  was  published  in  1874  it  was  a  rare 
thing  to  meet  with  a  scientist  who  would  admit  that  the 
earth  had  a  ring  system;  to-day  it  is  as  rare  to  meet  with 
one  who  does  not  concede  the  great  fact,  and  the  great 
problem  is  resolving  itself  into  this  form:  How  did  the 
earth's  rings  fall  back  to  the  surface  of  the  planet  ?  I  have 


vi  Introduction. 

attempted  to  answer  this  question  in  the  following  pages, 
and  as  this  fourth  edition  is  being  prepared  for  the  press  I 
have  before  me  more  than  a  thousand  letters  from  many 
parts  of  the  thinking  world.  The  great  mass  of  them  con- 
cedes the  logic  of  my  contentions.  But  three  of  their 
writers  have  taken  a  variant  view. 

Annular  earth-evolution,  during  the  last  two  decades,  has 
assumed  a  stage  of  supreme  importance.  During  this 
period  I  discovered  many  old  thought  petrifactions  in  the 
oldest  world-literature  of  the  races,  which  seemed  to  point 
directly  to  the  reign  and  fall  of  an  ancient  earth-canopy. 
Keeping  this  central  fact  in  view,  during  the  last  ten  years, 
I  have  secured  from  the  old  beds  of  fossil  thought  the  most 
indubitable  evidence  that  when  the  oldest  records  were  in- 
scribed the  last  remnants  of  the  earth's  annular  system 
lingered  prominently  in  the  terrestrial  skies.  When  the 
mature  and  reliable  judgment  of  this  generation  is  pro- 
nounced it  will  be  to  establish  the  great  fact  that  the  geo- 
logic record  is  a  time-written  history  of  the  reign  and  fall 
of  earth-rings,  as  reflected  in  the  unmistakable  reign  and 
fall  of  canopies. 

The  "  Old  School-Geologist "  will  likely  be  the  last  per- 
son to  admit  that  the  earth's  aqueous  strata  have  largely 
fallen  into  place  as  we  find  them  to-day,  as  the  giant  wreck 
of  slowly  declining  annular  matter ;  but  when  it  shall  have 
become  apparent,  that  an  annular  system  does  not  neces- 
sarily fall  as  a  sudden  titanic  world-collision,  but  as  con- 
tinuous world-showers  of  dust  and  other  meteoric  matter, 
and  floods  of  watery  vapor,  and  snow,  through  the  "  Ages," 
the  great  mass  of  the  thinking  world  will  readily  admit  the 
logical  record  which  declares  that  not  only  the  great  mass  of 
the  mineral  crust  of  the  earth  has  to  a  vast  extent  been  built 
up,  sometimes  very  slowly,  and  again  very  rapidly,  as 
annular  material,  but  it  will  also  admit  that  the  very  life- 
succession  that  characterizes  the  record,  can  only  be  ex- 
plained by  the  logic  of  annular-canopy  world-evolution. 

It  was  not  until  after  this  century  began  that  the  illus- 
trious W.  F.  Warren,  Dean  of  Boston  University,  kindly 
called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  immortal  Kant  more 


Introduction.  vii 

than  150  years  ago  suggested  that  the  fall  of  waters  from 
an  earth-ring  might  have  caused  the  Deluge  of  Noah.  I 
desire  to  concede  to  that  great  philosopher  all  the  glory  his 
suggestion  merits.  To  this  end  I  desire  that  the  students 
of  annular  and  canopy  philosophy  should  read  all  that  he 
eeems  to  have  written  on  this  subject,  and  especially  his 
reasons  for  not  advocating  the  thought.  It  is  found  in 
"  Kant's  Cosmology,"  by  Hattie ;  pp.  229  to  231. 

In  the  more  than  forty  years  of  careful  examination  of 
the  fossil  records  I  have  found  an  amazing  amount  of 
testimony  that  gives  support  to  this  contention;  but  the 
most  astounding  part  of  this  testimony  is  the  strange  fact 
that  nothing  in  the  old  records  has  been  found  logically 
arrayed  against  it.  There  is  a  natural  scheme  found  prom- 
inent in  all  earth-building  that  harmonizes  and  dovetails 
into  the  establishment  of  a  law  of  progression,  and  succes- 
sion which  nothing  short  of  the  decline  of  rings  and  the 
reign  of  earth-canopies  successively  can  satisfactorily  ex- 
plain. 

Life-mutation  is  unquestionably  so  linked  to  the  history 
of  our  planet  as  to  show  plainly  the  frequent  passing  away 
of  old  world-conditions,  with  catastrophe  more  or  less  strik- 
ing, and  the  advent  of  new  life  with  new  conditions. 
Plainly  new  life-germs  have  settled  down  on  the  ruins  of 
the  old.  In  other  words  life-mutation  is  fossilized  in  the 
rock  record  and  tells  its  own  tale  of  world-changes.  The 
logic  of  Xature  confronts  us  with  the  grand  plan  of  life- 
stages,  the  succession  of  ages.  The  system  is  seen  in  the 
great  world-scheme,  and  in  the  last  analysis  of  the  earth- 
problem  we  will  be  taught  that  if  the  earth  never  had  had 
an  annular  system  it  would  never  have  had  a  succession  of 
"  ages,"  except  as  accidental  stages. 

The  succession  of  tropic  conditions  which  the  earth-rec- 
ord affirms,  also  affirms  canopy-succession,  and  canopy-suc- 
cession means  progressive  ring  declension.  We  learn  that 
all  earth  progress  accords  with  the  fact  that  gravital  law 
determined  the  grand  scheme  when  it  determined  the  pro- 
gressive movement  of  the  fiery  exhalations  that  the  molten 
earth  sent  up  into  the  cold  of  the  skies,  through  all  degrees 


viii  Introduction. 

of  temperature,  and  thus  afforded  an  opportunity  for  the 
formation  of  those  compounds  found  so  abundantly  in  the 
earth's  crust. 

The  reader's  attention  is  called  to  the  cut  facing  page 
175  of  this  volume,  and  which  was  first  published  in  the 
1902  edition  of  this  work.  Canopies  must  float  pole- ward 
in  falling,  and  leave  such  features  persistently  in  the  polar 
skies.  Just  before  the  close  of  last  century  I  found  this 
polar  picture  fossilized  in  the  oldest  thought  of  many 
peoples.  The  scholars  of  the  world  must  know  that  the 
ancient  North  World  was  a  point  of  supreme  regard  for  all 
humanity.  I  repeat  that  canopy  vapors  massing  them- 
selves in  the  polar  skies  and  plunging  to  the  earth,  must 
have  left  some  "  openings,"  or  "  breaches,"  literally  "  star- 
isles  "  in  the  polar  heavens.  I  have  found  such  sky-rifts 
as  thought-petrifactions  with  almost  all  the  ancient  races, 
and  need  only  call  attention  to  the  Bel-Peor,  or  "  Shining 
Hole,"  whose  image  was  a  "  hole  in  the  wall."  (Ez.  8:7.) 
,  It  is  plain  that  if  such  features  are  now  found  as  petri- 
factions in  the  oldest  thought,  there  can  be  no  questioning 
the  claim  that  the  earth  had  an  annular  system,  and  that 
its  remnants  of  vapor  and  mineral  dust  lingered  in  the  ter- 
restrial heavens  long  after  the  advent  of  civilized  man. 
This  thought  is  more  fully  elaborated  in  my  book  "  The 
Misread  Record,"  or  "  The  Deluge  and  Its  Cause."  (1905). 

ISAAC  N.  VAIL. 
PASADENA,  CAL.,  Eleventh  month  llth,  1911. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


OPP. 
PAGE 

Fig.     1.    Early  Stage  of  Ring  Formation 30 

Fig.     2.-  Earth  Cooled  from  a  Molten  State  ( Ita  Ring  System 

Formed )   45 

Fig.     3.    Earth  and  Its  Annular  System 74 

Fig.    4.    The  First  Canopy  Slowly  Spreading  Polarward 82 

Fig.    5.     The  Last  Canopy  of  Earth 100 

Fig.     6.    The  Closing  Scene   (Earth  with  Belts  Capping  the 

Poles)    167 

Fig.     7.    View  of  Northern  Heavena    (Poles,   Arches,  Stars, 

Etc.)    175 

Fig.     8.  Sun  with  Perihelia    232 

Fig.     9.  Uranus   (Rings  Forming)    241 

Fig.  10.  Saturn   (Rings  Formed)    257 

Fig.  11.  Jupiter   (Rings  Fallen)    273 

Fig.  12.  Earth  in  Edenic  Times   310 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER   I. 
All  Worlds  Made  Alike  .  13 


CHAPTER   II. 
Some  General  Considerations    31 

CHAPTER   III. 

Evidence  Supplied  by  the  Planets  Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars 
In  Support  of  the  Annular  Theory 49 

CHAPTER   IV. 
The  Geological  Record  Examined  82 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Earth's  Annular  as  Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony    77 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Noachian  Deluge   99 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Legends  of  the  Flood 110 

CHAPTER   VIH. 

A  Consideration  of  the  Evidence  in  Support  of  the  Claim 
that  the  Waters  of  the  Ocean  Have  Been  Greatly  In- 
creased in  Volume  in  Very  Recent  Geologic  Times 131 


PAOB 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Some  Topographical  Features  that  Prove  the  Declension  of 
Exterior  Matter  151 

CHAPTER   X. 

The  Glacial  Epochs  and  Eden  Ruins — Annular  Snows  the 
Only  Competent  Cause  167 

CHAPTER   XI. 
A  Brief  Review  of  the  Geologic  Ages  and  a  Presentation  of 

the  Evidence  They  Afford  of  Primitive  Glaciation,  etc. . .  202 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Evidence  Advanced  in  Support  of  the  Claim  that  the  Earth's 
Annular  System  was  the  Seed  Bed  of  Organisms,  and 
Consequently  a  Region  of  Microscopic  Life  and  In- 
fusorial Forms  232 

CHAPTER   XIH. 

A  Consideration  of  the  Evidence  that  Leads  to  the  Conclu- 
sion that  the  Carbon  Strata  of  the  World  were  Deposited 
as  Aqueous  Sediment  from  the  Earth's  Annular  System, 
Where  It  Had  Remained  for  Countless  Ages  as  a  Primi- 
tive Distillation  Expelled  from  the  Incandescent  or  Burn- 
ing Earth  255 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
IB  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?     An  Examination  of  the  Coal 

Beds  Under  the  Light  of  the  Annular  Theory 274 

CHAPTER   XV. 

Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence  of  the  Annular  Origin 
of  Coal  in  the  Metamorphism  of  Carbon  Beds.  Also, 
Some  Conclusive  Testimony  from  the  Cretaceous  and 
Tertiary  Coals  310 


PA.OK 

CHAPTER   XVI. 
Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons  336 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

Conclusive  Evidence  of  Annular  Downfalls  in  the  Tertiary 
Ocean  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  356 


APPENDIX. 

Note      I.— The  Last  Advance  of  Glaciers 372 

Note    II.— The  Lost  Continent  375 

Note  III. — Anthracites  in  British  America 376 

Note   IV. — A  Significant  Admission    376 

The  True  Origin  of  Coal.     The  Vegetation  Theory  Disproved  377 

Captain  Carter's  Original   Demonstration 395 

The  Origin  of  Petroleum   396 

Lord  Kelvin  on  Oxygen  and  Coal  405 


Eartfj'0  annular  Astern. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ALL  \TOKLDS  MADE  ALIKE. 

To  endeavor  to  prove  the  truth  of  the  theory  that 
supposes  this  earth  to  have  been,  from  the  close  of  the 
igneous  era  till  the  close  of  the  antediluvian  period, 
surrounded  by  an  annular  system,  seems  to  me,  since 
I  have  been  so  long  gathering  in  the  fund  of  evidence, 
like  trying  to  establish  a  self-evident  truth;  yet,  since 
geologic  science  has  been  pursued  by  a  host  of  honest 
and  indefatigable  workers,  with  ideas  at  variance  with 
this  claim,  and  since  established  theories  are  not  ex- 
pected to  be  abandoned  abruptly,  it  is  plain,  that  as  the 
annular  theory  demands  a  general  and  thorough  re- 
view of  the  geologic  record,  as  now  interpreted,  a 
great  effort  will  be  necessary  to  bring  it  within  the  pur- 
view and  consideration  of  science. 

The  geological  "  column  "  reveals  many  facts  that 
have  not  yet  been  recognized  by  investigators.  It  would 
be  strange,  indeed,  if  frail  and  erring  man  should  have 
erected  a  faultless  fabric  out  of  the  crude  materials 
supplied;  strange,  indeed,  if  the  "records"  have  in  all 
cases  been  interpreted  without  fault;  strange,  indeed, 
if  the  edifice  will  not  some  time  have  to  be  taken  down 
and  rebuilt,  as  it  has  been  at  different  times.  The  time 
was,  when  investigators  were  "  few  and  far  between." 
Thousands  of  eyes  now  run  over  the  field  where  trod 
the  investigators  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 


14:  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  day  is  past  when  a  geologist  can  sit  in  his  studio 
and  frame  a  theory  for  the  great  mass  of  thinkers.  The 
true  theory  was  written  by  the  hand  of  the  great  Mas- 
ter-builder, and  it  must  be  read  on  the  spot,  where  the 
wondrous  mystery  lies. 

It  is  with  no  desire  to  find  fault  with,  or  undervalue 
the  work  of  the  noble  band  of  ardent  workers  now  in 
the  field,  that  I  advance  the  claim  that  we  have  greatly 
misunderstood  and  misinterpreted  the  fascinating  vol- 
ume whose  time-stamped  pages  are  unfolding  to  our 
view.  We  have  misapprehended  the  rock-engraved 
hieroglyphics  from  the  very  first  rude  lines,  traced  on 
the  archsean  piles. 

It  was  a  sublime  conception  of  Prof.  Winchell  that 
represented  all  the  waters  of  the  terrestrial  oceans  as 
held  in  suspension  on  the  outskirts  of  the  primeval  at- 
mosphere by  the  inveterate  heat  of  the  igneous  earth. 

The  reader,  no  doubt,  remembers  his  glowing  de- 
scription of  the  Titanic  contest  between  the  powers  of 
Vulcan  and  Neptune.  How  the  waters  on  high  de- 
scended, while  yet  the  earth  was  a  hot  and  seething 
mass,  and  were  again  and  again  flung  into  space  by  the 
irritated  fires;  till,  finally,  worried  by  the  eternal 
attacks  of  Neptune,  the  fires  grew  tame,  and  the  oceans 
of  vapor  settled  upon  the  earth.  Thus  is  portrayed  the 
mistaken  idea  now  universally  prevalent,  that  from 
that  period,  beginning  as  soon  as  the  waters  could  re- 
main upon  the  earth,  these  having  all  descended  upon 
it,  worked  as  the  universal  ocean  now  does  in  building 
up  the  aqueous  crusts;  that  the  work  of  denudation 
and  the  distribution  of  detrial  matter  was  participated 
in  by  the  entire  ocean  as  it  now  exists,  from  the  very 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  15 

period  when  the  internal  fires  grew  quiet  and  permitted 
the  waters  to  reniain  upon  the  surface  of  the  planet. 

Now  is  this  claim  philosophic?  Did  the  oceans  all 
descend  at  that  time  ?  I  try  to  settle  this  point  by  the 
test  of  philosophic  law;  for,  here  is  the  foundation 
stone  of  the  geologic  edifice  men  have  built,  and  com- 
ing scientists  will  lift  it  from  its  bed  and  relay  it.  I 
ask  geologists  to  critically  examine  this  point  and  see 
whether  it  be  not  a  fact  that  only  a  small  part  of  the 
oceans  fell  at  the  time  alluded  to,  and  that  the  re- 
mainder continued  to  revolve  about  the  earth  for  im- 
measurable time,  as  an  annular  system,  or  a  belt  sys- 
tem like  that  of  the  planet  Jupiter.  Now  if  the  oceans 
all  fell  to  the  earth  at  the  close  of  the  igneous  era,  then 
the  current  theory  of  crust  evolution  is  correct;  but  if 
not,  it  is  incorrect. 

It  will  be  shown  in  the  following  pages  that  the  ter- 
restrial waters  did  not  all  fall  at  that  time;  that  physi- 
cal law  demands  that  they  should  not.  This  is  sus- 
ceptible of  the  clearest  demonstration.  The  import- 
ance of  this  question  cannot  easily  be  overestimated; 
and  yet,  the  first  thought  may  be,  "  Of  what  value  is 
it?" 

The  reader  who  patiently  reviews  this  problem  will 
see  that  a  more  important  one  has  never  come  before 
man  for  his  consideration. 

In  the  first  place,  let  me  press  this  question :  Is  there 
any  thing  unreasonable  or  unphilosophic  in  the  claim, 
that  the  aqueous  vapors,  kept  away  from  the  molten 
earth  by  the  repelling  force  of  heat,  were  necessarily 
whirled  into  independent  revolution  about  the  central 
fiery  orb?  Since  we  see  at  least  two  giant  planets  in 
the  solar  system  attended  by  such  revolving  vapors,  is 


16  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

it  not  a  reasonable  claim?  It  is  conceded  that  Jupi- 
ter's belts  are  aqueous  vapors. 

These  make  a  complete  revolution  in  about  ten 
hours,  and  it  is  claimed  by  eminent  astronomers  that 
they  are  held  away  from  the  planet  by  his  own  native 
heat. 

Well,  suppose  this  heat  were  suddenly  removed? 
The  Jovine  atmosphere  would  contract  and  what 
would  become  of  Jupiter's  moving  belts  ?  They  are  so 
many  tons  of  moving  matter,  possessing  so  many  tons 
of  moving  energy,  and  every  one  must  see  that  that 
energy  would  prolong  their  stay  in  Jupiter's  firma- 
ment. It  is  evident  that  revolving  vapors  would  be  no 
more  likely  to  fall  immediately  upon  the  withdrawal  of 
heat,  than  a  revolving  moon  in  the  same  situation ;  and 
if  their  moving  energy  was  great  enough,  it  is  plain 
that  Jupiter's  belts  would  continue  to  revolve  inde- 
pendently about  him  after  he  had  cooled  down.  Now, 
since  the  equatorial  belts  of  both  Jupiter  and  Saturn 
move  more  rapidly  than  the  polar,  they  must  be  mov- 
ing independently  of  each  other  and  also  independent- 
ly of  the  bodies  of  those  planets.  That  is,  they  do  not 
move  in  those  planets'  atmosphere,  but  are  revolving 
about  them  in  their  own  independent  orbits.  Then 
Jupiter's  belts  do  possess  energy  sufficient  to  insure 
their  continuance  in  a  belted  or  annular  system  revolv- 
ing about  him,  for  unknown  time.  This  feature  of  the 
question  will  be  fully  elaborated  in  another  chapter. 

We  know  that  the  terrestrial  waters,  like  Jupiter's, 
were  at  one  time  kept  away  from  the  surface  of  our 
planet,  and  we  know,  too,  that  in  the  revolving  mass, 
a  moving  energy  was  imparted  to  these  also,  and  that 
that  energy  must  have  prolonged  their  stay  in  the  ter- 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  17 

restrial  firmament,  after  the  earth  cooled  down.  One 
must  see  that  on  the  very  threshold  of  this  investiga- 
tion, my  claim  that  the  earth's  oceans  did  not  all  re- 
turn to  the  earth  at  the  close  of  the  igneous  era,  is  a 
reasonable  and  philosophic  one.  I  might  almost  say  a 
necessary  one. 

No .  geologist,  astronomer,  or  physicist,  will,  I  pre- 
sume, for  a  moment  doubt  the  now  firmly  established 
conclusion,  that  the  earth  was  at  one  time  in  an  igneous- 
fluid  state;  and  also  that  while  it  remained  in  that  fiery 
condition,  all  its  waters  and  whatever  else  that  was 
vaporized  and  sublimed  by  the  inveterate  heat,  such  as 
the  less  refractory  minerals  and  metals  in  the  boiling 
mass,  were  driven  away  from  its  surface  and  hindered 
from  falling  upon  it  by  the  repelling  energy  of  heat.  A 
failure  to  follow  this  conclusion,  and  the  consequences 
necessarily  flowing  from  this  primitive  condition  of  our 
planet,  has  involved  us  in  a  maze  of  difficulty  and  error. 
A  failure  to  comprehend  many  of  the  legitimate  conse- 
quences of  the  measureless  force  employed^  every 
pound  of  which  must  have  been  conserved  in  after- 
effects, has  immeasurably  checked  the  solution  of  some 
of  the  grandest  problems  of  Nature. 

Let  us  now  begin  at  the  very  foundation  of  this  physi- 
cal problem,  and  critically  examine  every  step  of  our 
progress.  We  will  reject  every  link  of  evidence  that 
will  not  bear  the  test  of  scientific  scrutiny.  I  must  ask 
the  reader  to  patiently  follow  me  in  the  line  of  argu- 
ment I  am  about  to  pursue,  for  it  requires  a  round  of 
investigation  that  few  men  will  at  first  appreciate. 

Our  foundation  is  the  molten,  or  igneous  world.  The 
vaporized  water,  mineral  and  metallic  elements  re- 
pelled from  it,  existed  as  a  great  vaporous  atmosphere, 


18  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

that  rotated  with  the  earth,  just  as  our  atmosphere  now 
does.  If  the  earth  then  rotated  once  in  every  twenty- 
four  hours,  the  atmosphere  turned  with  it  in  the  same 
time.  If  it  rotated  in  the  short  space  of  about  three 
hours,  as  claimed  by  Proctor  and  other  eminent  astron- 
omers, the  great  primeval  atmosphere  rotated  with  it 
in  three  hours.  Does  not  this  postulate  demand  uncon- 
ditional assent  from  all  men?  Will  any  fair  reasoner 
claim  that  I  assume  here  what  is  not  self-evident?  A 
little  thought  will  induce  the  most  incredulous  to  admit 
that  my  claim  here  made  is  just  and  necessarily  true. 
Let  us  remember,  then,  that  the  primeval  atmosphere 
rotated  with  the  earth — in  the  same  time,  no  matter 
how  long  or  short  that  period  was.  Then  the  question  is 
at  once  reduced  to  this: — When  did  those  vapors  and 
other  material  constituting  that  atmosphere  return  to 
the  earth?  For  they  have  returned.  The  question, 
how  did  they  return,  is  also  a  legitimate  one,  and  will 
receive  due  consideration. 

They  returned  or  fell  to  the  earth,  either  immediate- 
ly after  it  cooled  down  and  the  heat  ceased  to  repel 
them,  or  they  continued  for  a  time  to  revolve  around 
it.  If  some  of  those  vapors  fell  at  the  close  of  the 
igneous  era,  then  a  part  of  them;  continued  to  revolve. 
As  before  intimated,  the  science  of  Geology  has  been 
built  entire  upon  the  former  supposition,  and  the  an- 
nular theory  is  planted  upon  the  latter.  Witnesses 
must  determine  which  of  these  foundations  is  false; 
with  a  reasonable  probability  in  the  truth  of  the  latter, 
as  attested  by  the  Jovial  and  Saturnian  belted  or  an- 
nular systems;  and  the  improbability  that  the  potential 
energy  stored  up  in  the  rotating  mass  of  vapors  during 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  19 

its  repulsion  by  heat,  would  all  be  expended  in  their 
decline  in  the  period  between  azoic  and  paleozoic  time. 
The  most  eminent  scientists  agree  that  the  great 
mass  of  swaddling  vapors  in  the  primitive  atmosphere 
were  driven  at  least  200,000  miles  from  the  earth. 
Others  claim  that  the  earth's  vaporous  atmosphere  dur- 
ing the  igneous  era,  embraced  the  orbit  of  the  moon 
within  its  boundaries.  It  must  be  remembered  that 
all  the  carbon  in  the  great  casement, of  aqueous  rocks, 
the  vast  oceans  of  oxygen  now  contained  in  the  silicates, 
sulphates,  carbonates,  and  oxides  of  the  crust,  as  well 
as  the  nitrogen  and  hydrogen,  in  numerous  compounds, 
enormously  swelled  its  volume,  so  that  a  modern  chem- 
ist speaking  from  his  laboratory,  makes  the  claim  that 
if  that  atmosphere  pressed  on  the  earth  in  proportion 
to  its  depth  as  ours  does  to-day,  unaffected  by  repelling 
heat,  it  would  be  equal  to  a  column  of  mercury  more 
than  22,000  inches  high.  I  believe  it  was  M.  Figuier 
that  first  advanced  the  idea  that  this  atmosphere  ex- 
tended to  the  moon,  and  others  would  extend  it  still 
farther.  This,  of  course,  is  understood  to  be  its  extent 
at  the  close  of  the  igneous  era,  and  before  the  aqueous 
beds  were  laid  down.  Now,  however  conditioned  the 
atmosphere  was  at  that  time,  one  thing  is  very  evi- 
dent, it  was  one  of  vast  extent.  If  I  should  take  ad- 
vantage of  these  claims  and  base  my  calculations  upon 
an  atmosphere  200,000  or  240,000  miles  deep,  it  would 
greatly  aid  me,  and  make  my  conclusions  much  more 
apparent  and  conclusive.  But  to  be  sure  that  we  are 
moving  entirely  within  philosophic  bounds,  and  to  give 
no  possible  opportunity  for  an  opposer  to  claim  that 
I  strain  any  point  or  take  undue  advantage  of  extrava- 
gant admissions  of  men  of  science,  I  will  not  claim 


20  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

240,000  nor  200,000  miles  as  the  atmosphere's  depth, 
but  will  base  my  calculations  on  a  depth  of  only  100,- 
000  miles.  This  is  amply  sufficient  for  us,  and  with 
this  depth  it  is  easy  to  prove  beyond  a  doubt,  that  a 
mighty  fund  of  vapors  continued  to  revolve  for  un- 
known time  about  the  earth. 

Again,  it  is  to-day  a  favorite  theme  of  astronomers 
that,  during  the  igneous  era,  the  earth  rotated  in  a 
period  of  only  three  or  four  hours.  If  this  be  true,  the 
probability  that  the  matter  in  the  primeval  atmosphere 
was  whirled  into  belts  or  rings  is  increased  from  six  to 
eight  fold.  It  seems  scarcely  needful  for  me  to  say, 
that  astronomers  came  to  this  conclusion  by  a  legiti- 
mate process  of  philosophic  deduction.  It  must  be 
evident  that  this  rate  of  rotation  would  be  of  great  ad- 
vantage to  us  in  establishing  annular  conditions;  for, 
almost  every  school-boy  has  learned  that  if  the  earth 
should  rotate  more  than  seventeen  times  as  rapidly  as 
it  now  does,  the  oceans  at  the  equator  would  be  whirled 
into  space,  and  made  to  revolve  around  it.  Then,  a 
rotation  in  three  hours,  or  eight  times  as  rapidly  as  at 
present,  would  whirl  matter  already  floating  in  the  at- 
mosphere to  a  greater  height  and  increase  annular  ten- 
dency in  the  same  proportion.  However,  we  will  de- 
cline to  make  use  of  this  advantage,  and  use  only  that 
rate  of  rotation  that  every  one  knows  to  be  correct, 
viz: — one  revolution  in  24  hours. 

Here,  then,  we  have  true  philosophic  data  which  all 
men  will  certainly  admit  to  be  fair;  and  upon  which 
all  may  proceed  to  erect  the  annular  theory,  and  we 
will  endeavor  to  square  every  timber  in  the  edifice  by 
one  unvarying  rule : — Philosophic  Law.  If  we  succeed 
with  these  data  to  start  with,  men  of  science  may  nrul- 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  21 

tiply  its  certainty  by  at  least  twelve,  for  their  own  sat- 
isfaction. The  data  then  are : — a  primeval  atmosphere 
admitted  on  all  hands  to  be  100,000  miles  deep,  and  a 
known  velocity  of  rotation  of  once  in  24  hours. 

With  this  rate  of  rotation,  we  also  know  that  the 
velocity  of  any  point  on  the  equator  of  the  earth  was 
about  1,000  miles  per  hour,  while  the  equatorial 
periphery  of  the  great  vaporous  atmosphere  moved 
with  an  actual  velocity  of  more  than  25,000  miles  per 
hour.  This,  the  most  ordinary  mind  can  determine; 
but  as  we  are  searching  for  facts  that  any  child  who 
may  peruse  these  pages  may  understand,  I  will  give  the 
simple  calculation  here. 

If  the  atmosphere  were  100,000  miles  deep,  and  the 
earth  8,000  miles  in  diameter  approximately,  the 
diameter  of  the  sphere  would  be  208,000  miles,  and  the 
circumference  a  little  more  than  three  times  that  or 
about  624,000 — the  space  that  any  point  in  the  outer 
boundary  of  the  atmosphere  would  move  through  in  24 
hours, — and  of  course  -^  of  that  distance  in  one  hour, 
or  26,000  miles  (I  will  give  1,000  miles  to  the  other 
side  out  of  pure  liberality). 

The  simple  conclusion  drawn  from  this  is,  as  any  one 
can  see,  that  a  ton  of  matter  at  or  near  the  equator  of 
the  earth  would  have  a  momentum)  of  1,000  tons,  in 
the  rotating  mass,  while  a  ton  of  vapor  or  any  other 
matter  on  the  peripheral  boundary  of  the  atmosphere, 
would  have  a  moving  energy  of  25,000  tons. 

Suppose  the  former  were  placed  ten  miles  above  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  and  the  latter  brought  down  to 
the  same  position;  the  former  with  a  velocity  of  1,000 
miles  per  hour  would  immediately  fall  to  the  earth, 
while  the  latter  would  rise,  and  revolve  around  the 


22  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

earth  as  a  satellite,  as  can  be  readily  proved  by  a  simple 
calculation.  The  mass  possessing  25,000  tons  of  mov- 
ing energy  must  lose  8,000  tons  of  that  moving  force 
before  it  would,  or  could  reach  the  earth;  for  as  I  have 
before  stated,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  any  body  mov- 
ing around  the  earth  at  a  rate  of  more  than  17,000 
miles  per  hour,  can  never  fall  to  its  surface,  and  a  ton 
moving  at  that  rate  would  possess  17,000  tons  of  mo- 
mentum, and  it  becomes  a  known  fact  that  if  that  mo- 
mentum were  increased  to  25,000  tons,  or  a  velocity 
25,000  miles  per  hour,  it  would  rise  and  revolve  in  its 
appropriate  orbit  about  the  earth,  and  never  until  its 
velocity  became  diminished  to  about  17,000  miles  per 
hour  could  it  reach  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Now  it 
could  make  no  difference  whether  a  body  be  a  ton  of 
stone  or  a  ton  of  aqueous  vapor,  it  would  continue  to 
move  around  the  earth  so  long  as  the  centrifugal  ex- 
ceeded the  gravital  force.  Hence  it  is  evident  that 
upon  the  data  assumed  above,  of  an  atmosphere  less 
than  half  so  extensive,  as  scientists  assumed,  and  with 
a  radial  velocity  more  than  six  times  less  than  they 
claim  for  the  mass,  the  centrifugal  force  of  a  vast  por- 
tion of  the  aqueous  vapors  and  other  matter  in  the 
primitive  atmosphere  was  such  as  to  effectually  hinder 
their  fall  to  the  earth,  as  the  latter  cooled  down  and  the 
vapors  condensed.  It  is  also  evident  that  the  matter 
in  the  lower  regions  of  the  atmosphere  would  fall  on 
the  withdrawal  of  terrestrial  heat,  and  it  is  an  easy 
thing  to  ascertain  the  line,  or  height  in  the  atmosphere 
beneath  which  all  vapors  upon  condensing  would  fall, 
on  account  of  insufficient  centrifugal  force  or  moving 
energy  to  keep  them  there,  and  all  vapors  beyond  which 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  23 

would  remain  there  because  of  insufficient  gravital 
force  to  bring  them  down. 

What,  then,  must  have  been  the  condition  of  those 
materials  that  formed  the  upper  and  outer  stratum  of 
that  great  atmosphere  after  the  earth  became  cool  and 
the  atmosphere  shrank  to  near  its  present  dimensions, 
and  all  the  aqueous  matter,  etc.,  to  the  height  of  20,000 
or  30,000  miles  had  fallen  to  the  earth?  These  must 
have  been  vast  oceans  of  clouds  possessing  a  velocity 
that  prevented  their  descent,  and  which  continued  to 
move  around  the  earth;  that  is,  the  earth  had  an  an- 
nular system.  If  any  criticism  can  shake  this  conclu- 
sion, there  is  nothing  in  law!  One  would  suppose 
that  this  is  all-sufficient  to  settle  the  question  forever, 
that  the  oceans  did  not  all  fall  to  the  earth  at  the  close 
of  the  igneous  era,  but  that  such  as  existed  when  they 
had  not  centrifugal  force  sufficient  to  retain  them  on 
high,  did  fall;  but  I  will  not  put  this  conclusion  aside 
until  I  have  shown  still  further  the  impregnable 
grounds  upon  which  it  is  based.  It  is  easy  to  demon- 
strate by  a  mathematical  calculation  that  the  above 
depth  of  atmosphere  and  rate  of  rotation  are  much 
greater  than  that  which  was  actually  necessary  to  pro- 
duce annular  formation  about  the  earth. 

The  analytical  expression  used  by  mathematicians 
to  represent  the  whole  force  of  gravity  at  the  earth's 
equator  is  g  +  —-^  where  g  is  the  visible  force  of 
gravity,  or  the  space  a  body  will  fall  at  the  equator  dur- 
ing the  first  second  of  time;  c  is  the  chord  of  an  arc 
over  which  a  revolving  body  moves  in  one  second, 
and  D  the  diameter  of  the  orbit  of  which  c,  or  the  arc, 
is  a  part,  and—-  is  the  centrifugal  force  or  the  part  of 


24  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

gravity  destroyed  by  rotation,  or  movement  in  an  orbit. 
It  is  evident  that  the  arc  c  or  the  space  passed  over 
by  the  moving  body  in  one  second,  will  be  practi- 
cally equal  to  the  chord  of  the  same  arc,  and  I  will 
therefore  use  it  as  such;  that  is,  as  a  straight  line. 
Now,  as-^-  is  the  centrifugal  force,  and  g  the  gravital 
or  centripetal  force,  when  these  forces  are  equal,  and 
the  body  neither  falls  nor  rises,  but  moves  on  con- 
tinually in  its  orbit,  g  =  -? -• 

Now  there  are  86,164  seconds  in  one  complete  rota- 
tion of  the  earth,  and  the  circumference  of  the  earth 
is  D  X  3.1416  nearly,'  and  this  divided  by  86,164,  num- 
ber of  seconds  in  one  rotation,  gives  the  length  of  the 
arc  c,  or  the  distance  any  point  on  the  equator  moves  in 
one  second  of  time;  in  other  words,  the  rate  of  motion. 
But  when  g  =-^-it  is  evident  that  gD=c2  or  c  =  V  g  D, 
and  as  often  as  c,  the  distance  a  body  moves  in  one  sec- 
ond, is  contained  in  the  whole  circumference,  so  many 
seconds  are  there  in  one  revolution;  that  is,  PX3.1416 

A-  -j  j  i,  •*  i   ,/-TT  DX3.1416 

divided  by  c  or  its  equal,  vg D,  thus:  -        ^-fr~  =  num- 

v g  k> 

ber  of  seconds  in  one  revolution  when  9==—^-  or  when  the 

earth  rotates  so  rapidly  that  the  centrifugal  force  on 

the  equator  equals  gravity.     Then  we  evidently  have 

DX  3.1416        7925X5280X3.1416   *_ 

VgD       ~  V  16.076  X  7926  X  6280 

•  7925  X  5280  =  number  of  feet  in  the  earth's 
diameter,  and  16,076  =  g  —  distance  a  body  falls 
at  the  equator  during  the  first  second.  Let  D 
be  the  earth's  equatorial  diameter  (7925  miles), 
and  X  the  versed  sine  of  the  arc  or  distance  a 
point  on  the  equator  moves  in  one  second ;  A  X 
is  the  chord  of  the  arc,  and  practically  equal 
to  the  chord  itself,  where  so  small  a  portion  of 
*TO-  *'  time  is  considered. 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  25 

5069  seconds  =  lh,  24:m,  29s,  or  the  time  in  which  a 
ton  of  matter  would  have  to  revolve  about  the  earth 
just  at  its  surface  at  the  equator,  so  that  it  would 
neither  rise  nor  fall,  and  when,  if  its  velocity  were  in- 
creased, it  would  move  away  from  the  earth,  and  in  an- 
other orbit.  Now  this  velocity  is  17  times  the  present 
velocity  of  the  earth's  rotation,  or  about  17,000  miles 
per  hour.  Hence,  we  have  an  absolute  demonstration 
that  any  body  in  our  present  atmosphere  or  in  the  great 
primeval  atmosphere,  or  at  any  point  above  the  earth, 
moving  at  the  rate  of  25,000  or  20,000  or  even  17,500 
miles  per  hour  around  it,  could  not  fall  to  its  surface! 
But  vast  quantities  of  primeval  vapors  did  move  with 
this  velocity  according  to  our  assumed  data,  which  data 
we  have  no  reason  to  dispute,  and  therefore  we  are 
abundantly  justified  in  the  claim  that  the  earth  for  un- 
known time  was  accompanied  with  an  annular  system, 
and  the  geological  record  has  been  misinterpreted,  and 
must  be  reviewed,  and  geological  theories  remodeled. 

The  foregoing  calculations,  it  might  seem,  are  all- 
sufficient  to  establish  the  fact  of  annular  formation 
about  the  primitive  earth.  But  this  formation,  once 
effected,  demands  a  permanency  of  existence,  which  an 
immensity  of  time  only  can  effect.  Rings  once  formed 
about  the  earth  after  the  lapse  of  countless  millions  of 
years,  cannot  collapse  in  a  day.  They  must  lose  their 
momentum  with  a  steadiness  as  invariable  as  the  flood 
of  ages.  It  would  be  as  unreasonable  to  suppose  the 
earth's  present  satellite  would  in  an  hour  break  loose 
from  its  anchorage,  and  descend  to  the  earth,  as  to  sup- 
pose that  one  of  its  rings  could  do  the  same  thing.  Then 
with  the  primitive  earth  surrounded  with  a  ring  system 
whose  longevity  could  be  counted  only  by  geologic 


26  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ages,  are  we  for  a  moment  to  suppose  that  the  aqueous 
strata-formation  only  began  after  that  system  had 
fallen?  Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
aqueous  strata  began  to  form  as  the  vapors  began  to 
descend,  and  that  the  latter  continued  their  decline 
through  all  geologic  time?  What  is  there  unreason- 
able in  the  claim? 

Rings  of  aqueous  vapor,  however  associated  with 
mineral  and  metallic  matter,  must  follow  in  all  respects 
the  same  laws  as  a  moon  or  planetary  satellite  in  their 
motions  around  their  primary.  There  is  a  law  well 
known  to  the  mathematical  world,  called  "  Kepler's 
Third  Law."  Let  us  bring  it  into  use.  By  it  we  can 
readily  demonstrate  not  only  that  the  primitive  distil- 
lations, repelled  from  the  fiery  sphere,  were  thrown 
into  a  ring-system,  but  by  it  we  can  also  readily  show 
how  far  above  the  earth's  surface  they  must  have  re- 
volved about  it.  This  law  may  be  stated  thus:  The 
squares  of  the  periodic  times  of  revolving  satellites  are 
proportional  to  the  cubes  of  their  mean  distances  from 
the  primary  around  which  they  move.  This  is  of  uni- 
versal application  whatever  be  the  shape  or  constitution 
of  the  satellites,  as  all  must  know.  Then  if  we  take 
the  cube  of  the  radius  of  the  moon's  orbit,  which  is 
sixty  times  the  equatorial  radius  of  the  earth,  and  divide 
it  by  the  square  of  the  time  of  its  revolution  in  seconds, 
it  must  be  equal  to  the  cube  of  the  orbital  radius  of  a 
ring  of  any  kind  of  matter  revolving  about  the  earth, 
divided  by  the  square  of  the  time  of  its  revolution  in 
seconds. 

As  before  stated,  the  primeval  atmosphere  in  which 
the  matter  distilled  from  the  igneous  earth  existed,  and 
out  of  which  matter  all  terrestrial  rings  must  have  been 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  27 

formed,  rotated  with  the  earth;  and  we  have  assumed 
this  rotation  to  be  once  in  twenty-four  hours,  which 
the  reader  will  readily  grant.  Then  it  must  be  seen 
that  we  have  three  known  terms  of  a  proportion  to  find 
the  fourth.  This  fourth  term  is  readily  found,  and 
is  the  actual  distance  of  any  terrestrial  ring  from  the 
earth's  center.  Put  this  unknown  quantity  =  R  and 
we  will  have  the  following  easy  calculation.  The  time 
of  the  primitive  atmosphere's  rotation  =  86,164  sec- 
onds, moon's  time  2,360,608  seconds,  and  we  have  the 
following  equation : — 

R3  60s 


(86,164)2       (2,360,608)2 

developing  and  reducing  by  simple  calculation  or  more 
readily  by  logarithms,  we  will  find  R3  =  279.725264 
and  R.  =  6.54  times  the  equatorial  radius  of  the  earth, 
or  the  semi-diameter  of  a  ring  revolving  about  the 
earth  once  in  twenty-four  hours.  In  other  words, 
vapors,  of  whatever  kind,  in  the  primitive  atmosphere, 
at  the  height  or  distance  of  26,000  miles  from  the 
earth's  center,  or  a  little  more  than  22,000  miles  from 
its  surface,  possessed  all  the  independent  energy  of  a 
revolving  satellite;  and  all  vapors  farther  off  possessed 
still  greater  momentum,  and  those  nearer  the  earth  did 
not  possess  the  energy  of  a  satellite,  and  fell  to  the 
earth  as  it  cooled  down,  leaving  the  more  distant  mat- 
ter moving  independently  about  it.  Is  there  anything 
wrong  with  this  demonstration  ?  Thus  "  Kepler's 
Third  Law "  establishes  the  truth  of  the  annular 
theory,  or  proves  itself  to  be  of  no  value  at  all ! 

Then  we  must  see  that  we  need  no  atmosphere  240,- 
000  miles  in  depth,  nor  100,000,  nor  even  22,000  miles 
in  order  to  show  that  annular  formation  was  an  abso- 


28  The  Earth's  Annular  System, 

lute  necessity  in  the  evolution  of  the  earth.  Every 
mile  added  to  this  paltry  depth,  adds  to  the  certainty 
of  the  fact.  Did  the  earth  then  rotate  in  86,164 
seconds,  or  did  it  rotate  in  half  that  time?  Every 
second  of  diminution  adds  to  the  certainty  of  the  fact. 
How  can  we  escape  this  conclusion  ?  Thus  is  rendered 
plain  and  irrefutable  the  claim  that  the  lower  part  of 
the  great  aqueous  atmosphere,  upon  contraction  and 
condensation  resulting  from  the  loss  of  terrestrial  heat, 
fell  away  from  the  upper  part,  simply  because  the  latter 
(like  the  rim  of  a  great  revolving  wheel)  moved  so  rap- 
idly it  could  not  descend,  but  continued  to  revolve 
about  the  earth  until  it  lost  so  much  of  its  independent 
inertia,  as  to  permit  it  to  descend,  as  will  be  shown  in 
its  proper  place. 

Proceeding  thus  from  the  known  condition  of  the 
primitive  earth  along  a  track,  every  step  of  which  is 
known,  we  have  by  adhering  to  strict  philosophic  de- 
mands, laid  the  foundation  of  a  theory  that  no  man  can 
shake.  The  reader  will  from  this  time  observe,  that 
the  fabric  built  upon  this  foundation,  is  not  an  obelisk, 
but  a  pyramid,  whose  successive  stages  add  permanence 
to  the  adamantine  sills  upon  which  it  stands. 

Let  us  look  back  upon  the  ground  over  which  we 
have  passed.  We  see  a  fiery  globe  rolling  through, 
space  with  a  vast  and  heavy  atmosphere,  rotating  so 
rapidly  that  its  outskirts  are  unavoidably  made  to  as- 
sume such  a  velocity  as  to  prevent  them  from  falling. 
The  earth  was  then  a  glowing  sun,  or  a  gleaming  star, 
as  analogy  seems  to  prove.  But  when  this  earth  from 
"  its  inmost  bosom  burned,"  when  its  oceans  of  molten 
minerals  beat  upon  a  seething  coast,  when  its  rivers 
were  fluid  fire,  and  its  fountains  dashing  flames,  when 


All  Worlds  Made  Alike.  29 

its  "  clouds  by  fiery  tempests  driven,"  dropped  their 
steaming  floods,  an  energy  potential  was  stored  up  in 
the  mighty  upper  deep — a  vast  abyss  that  literally  built 
the  aqueous  world  in  after  times. 

We  can  easily  imagine  a  world  and  its  atmosphere 
turning  so  slowly  that  the  vapors  would  fall  immediate- 
ly after  it  cooled  down,  leaving  the  heavens  clear,  and 
a  vast  universal  ocean  washing  it.  But  no  such  condi- 
tions have  ever  existed  on  the  earth  that  could  bring 
these  things  to  pass.  Every  mathematician  must  know 
full  well,  that  the  rotation  of  such  a  mass  once  in 
twenty-four  hours,  would  inevitably  separate  the  upper 
vapors  from  the  lower,  leaving  the  upper  far  above  the 
atmosphere  or  terrestrial  firmament,  obeying  the  de- 
mands of  inexorable  law.  And  when  investigators 
recognize  this  fact,  as  it  stands  to-day  demanding  a  re- 
spectful consideration,  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  they 
be  able  to  unlock  some  of  the  most  perplexing  questions 
of  science,  which  now  defy  explanation.  It  is  the 
Philosopher's  key  to  "nature's  vast  cathedral."  I  dare 
not  now  point  out  the  grand  avenues  of  thought  which 
it  opens;  but  time  will  make  all  things  visible.  I  al- 
most said,  "  all  things  new,"  not  only  in  physics,  but 
also  in  metaphysics !  All  I  ask  of  the  reader  of  these 
pages  is  implicit  recognition  of  LAW,  in  this  field  of 
labor  so  near  the  Great  Fountain  of  Truth.  The  mo- 
ment we  leave  it,  we  land  in  shadow  and  darkness.  To 
propagate  and  teach  one  error  hides  a  multitude  of 
truths.  An  error  taught  in  the  name  of  science  is  a 
pernicious  falsehood.  We  must,  N sooner  or  later,  ac- 
knowledge the  declaration  of  the  missed  and  lamented 
Agassiz :  "  A  physical  fact  is  as  sacred  as  a  moral  prin- 
ciple ;  "  for  a  physical  fact  ignored  sends  violated  im- 


30  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

pulses  through  the  nerve  centers  of  society;  and  their 
impress  is  traced  in  imperishable  lines,  as  by  a  hand 
unseen.  But  one  physical  fact  stands  out  prominent 
in  the  universe,  viz:  Annular  formation  is  a  necessity 
in  the  evolution  of  worlds  from  their  primitive  state  !  ! 
It  must  be  plain  from  the  foregoing  that  if  geologists 
had  followed  the  grand  train  of  philosophic  events  re- 
sulting from  the  igneous  fluidity  of  the  burning  earth 
in  primitive  times,  they  must  have  long  since  concluded 
that  much  of  the  aqueous  crust  of  the  earth  once  ex- 
isted with  the  revolving  vapors,  as  infinitesimal  parti- 
cles, or  tellurio-cosmic  dust,  in  the  ring-system.  It 
must  be  so;  from  the  very  nature  of  that  great  sublima- 
tion of  terrestrial  elements,  we  are  forced  to  this  con- 
clusion. And  now  if  men  of  science  will  but  open  their 
eyes  and  look,  they  must  see  it.  Let  them  follow  this 
conclusion  to  its  legitimate  end,  and  they  must  see  with 
the  keenest  regret,  the  fruitless  toil  of  centuries.  No, 
not  fruitless!  They  have  sailed  along  the  very  boun- 
dary of  this  field  of  investigation,  and  its  explored 
avenues  have  yielded  returns  that  will  aid  in  the  new 
realm  of  thought.  The  glories  of  a  brighter  day  are 
dawning  in  mankind's  sky,  when  all  men  must  see 
more  nearly  eye  to  eye. 


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CHAPTER  H. 

SOME  GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS. 

To  those  who  are  able  to  follow  physical  causes  to 
their  legitimate  and  necessary  effects,  it  will  not  be 
difficult  to  satisfactorily  explain  the  mode  of  ring- 
formation  about  the  primitive  earth.  The  grand  and 
stupendous  changes  that  have  recorded  their  way- 
marks,  are  the  guide-posts  of  the  investigator,  pointing 
unmistakably  to  unavoidable  conclusions.  Being  the 
physical  means  by  which  an  incomprehensible  Planner 
and  Architect  has  completed  a  beautiful  world  for  the 
habitation  of  man,  according  to  unchanging  law,  if  we 
follow  philosophically  the  unmistakably  known  condi- 
tions stated  in  the  previous  chapter — i.e.,  those  flowing 
from  a  state  of  igneous  fusion,  we  cannot  draw  erron- 
eous conclusions.  Then  let  us  be  careful  that  no  error 
enters  the  threshold  of  our  work  as  we  pass  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown. 

We  all  know  with  absolute  certainty  that  when  the 
earth  was  in  a  state  of  fiery  fluidity,  the  entire  oceans 
of  water  now  on  its  surface  were  held  suspended  at  a 
great  distance  from  it.  Not  one  drop  of  the  mighty 
waters  now  surging  against  the  shores  of  the  earth, 
could  have  remained  for  an  instant  on  its  surface,  nor 
in  its  flaming  firmament.  This  we  can  all  see  so  plain- 
ly that  no  one  can  entertain  a  doubt  upon  it.  There  is 
another  known  condition  that  will  greatly  aid  us  in  this 
argument,  when  properly  understood:  the  evident  dis- 
position of  the  cooling  and  contracting  earth  to  absorb 
or  draw  the  waters  into  its  rock-forming  crust,  as  they 


32  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

fell  to  its  surface.  It  is  not  difficult  to  determine  how 
much  water  or  moisture  a  heated  stone  of  any  kind  will 
absorb  as  it  cools,  so  that  we  can  give  a  reasonable  and 
just  approximation  of  the  amount  of  water  existing  in 
the  various  rock  formations  of  the  globe.  Many  in- 
vestigators have  worked  upon  this  question,  and  it  has 
been  found  by  analysis  and  experiment  that  even  the 
solid  lime-rock  contains  from  one-half  to  one  per  cent, 
of  water.  Coals  vary  from  five  to  twelve  per  cent, 
in  the  amount  of  water  they  contain.  Iron  ores  from 
one  to  six  per  cent.  Some  sand-stones  contain  from 
six  to  ten  per  cent.,  clays  much  more,  while  granite, 
mica,  feld-spar,  and  even  solid  quartz  crystals,  contain 
moisture  in  different  amounts. 

In  our  deepest  caves  and  mines,  some  of  them  far 
below  the  ocean's  level,  water  is  found  running  down 
and  into  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  This  proves  that  the 
solid  crust  is  still  imbibing  the  waters  of  the  ocean 
with  a  quenchless  thirst,  and  that  coming  ages  must 
diminish  its  volume  and  depth.  If  no  more  than  a 
single  barrel  of  water  is  absorbed  in  a  day,  a  sufficient 
number  of  days  will  cause  the  solid  earth  to  appropriate 
all  the  waters  on  the  globe.  The  question  then,  what 
volumes  of  water  has  the  earth  already  absorbed,  be- 
comes an  interesting  and  very  important  one;  one  that 
geologists  have  scarcely  considered. 

Dana  estimated  that  the  oceans  would  be  400  feet 
deeper  if  these  imbibed  waters  were  returned  to  them. 
Many  of  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  States  would  be  entirely 
submerged.  New  York  city,  Philadelphia  and  New 
Orleans,  would  be  more  than  200  feet  under  water. 
Three-fourths  of  the  islands  of  the  earth  would  be  sub- 
merged, and  a  vast  portion  of  Europe  and  Asia  would 


Some  General  Considerations.  33 

be  one  great  sweep  of  waters.  Then  if  Dana's  esti- 
mate be  a  true  one,  and  if  it  be  true  that  all  the  oceans 
fell  to  the  earth  in  pre-laurentian  times,  the  general 
depth  of  the  same  is  less  to-day  by  400  feet  than  it  was 
then.  But  Dana's  estimate  is  a  very  cautious  and 
moderate  one;  and  based  upon  a  thickness  of  super- 
crust  of  about  five  miles,  while  modern  researches  have 
demonstrated  it  to  be  vastly  thicker, — some  eminent 
physicists  reckoning  it  as  high  as  1,000  miles,  so  that 
if  we  reckon  it  to  be  100  miles  thick  and  admit  the 
rocks  to  contain  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  moisture, 
or  one-fifth  what  Dana  claimed,  the  oceans  the  world 
over  would  rise  2,500  feet  upon  the  shores  of  the  con- 
tinents; or  admitting  his  estimate  of  rock  moisture  to 
be  correct,  it  would  be  increased  to  8,000  feet. 

Hence  it  must  be  seen  that  if  all  the  terrestrial 
waters  rolled  as  a  primitive  ocean  around  the  earth, 
they  have  diminished  from  2,500  to  8,000  feet  in  depth 
during  geologic  times.  How  many  of  my  readers  are 
ready  to  admit  that  the  primitive  ocean  was,  on  an  aver- 
age, deeper  than  it  now  is?  Whatever  testimony  we 
can  gather  from  the  rocky  volume,  points  to  the  conclu- 
sion that- that  ocean  was  very  shallow.  Hence  we  are 
irresistibly  forced  to  believe  that  the  oceans  fell  to  the 
earth  in  great  installments.  If  the  seas  of  the  earth 
were  never  any  deeper  than  now,  then  2,500  feet  (or 
the  400  feet  of  Dana's  reckoning)  fell  after  the  solid 
crust  had  imbibed  that  much,  and  I  am  inclined  to 
think  the  intelligent  reader  will  yet  agree  with  me, 
that  the  ocean  is  now  many  thousand  feet  deeper  than 
it  was  even  in  devonian  times,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
cambrian  age. 

But  whatever  be  the  present  volume  of  the  subter- 


34  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ranean  waters  and  rock-imbibed  moisture,  it  is  evident 
that  there  was  a  time  when  the  earth  did  not  contain 
them.  So  that  the  present  waters  on  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  do  not  by  any  means  represent  the  great  ex- 
panse of  vapors  that  once  enveloped  it.  Let  us  remem- 
ber this  conclusion,  to  which  we  are  necessarily  im- 
pelled. 

But  all  these  revolving  vapors  fell  to  the  earth,  for 
they  are  on  the  earth  and  within  it !  and  further,  every 
pound  that  fell,  by  force  of  impact  and  actual  mechan- 
ical pressure,  was  registered  in  the  rocky  frame  of  the 
earth  as  so  much  potential  energy!  This  fact  has 
never  been  regarded  at  all  by  men  of  science.  In  an- 
other chapter  it  will  be  seen  that  this  energy  was  con- 
served in  mountain-making  and  plication  of  strata,  and 
that  if  the  materials  of  the  annular  system  had  not 
reached  the  earth  at  different  geological  ages,  there 
would  have  been  no  general  upheaval  after  the  close  of 
the  laurentian  era; — that  the  mountain  systems  and 
the  continents  of  the  earth  are  a  measure  of  the  stu- 
pendous force  expended  in  the  fall  of  the  oceans  to 
their  present  level,  and  that  the  starts  and  mountain- 
making  ages  resulted  from  successive  installments  of 
matter  from  the  Earth's  Ring  System. 

When  the  waters  were  held  suspended  in  the  primi- 
tive atmosphere,  they  would  move  in  that  direction 
towards  which  the  impelling  forces  would  drive  them. 
The  centrifugal  force  of  the  rotating  mass  superadded 
to  the  driving  force  of  heat,  was  greater  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  equator,  hence  they  would  accumulate  in  the 
equatorial  regions.  Let  the  reader  understand  how  this 
must  have  occurred.  There  being  no  centrifugal  force 
at  the  poles,  the  vapors  were  kept  from  falling  there 


Some  General  Considerations.  35 

by  heat  alone;  but  all  other  parts  of  the  surface  pos- 
sessed some  centrifugal  energy  tending  to  carry  the  sus- 
pended matter  away  from  the  earth  in  lines,  at  right 
angles  to  the  earth's  polar  axis.  This  force,  to  use  the 
language  of  mathematicians,  "  decreases  the  weight  of 
the  sea,  which  is  thereby  rendered  susceptible  of  being 
supported  at  a  higher  level  than  at  the  poles,  where  no 
such  counteracting  force  exists."* 

Now  during  the  igneous  era,  gravital  force  could  in 
no  sense  operate  to  bring  matter  back  to  the  earth, 
which  had  undergone  vaporization.  Hence  centrifugal 
force  carried  it  much  farther  from  the  earth  and  into 
the  equatorial  heavens  at  that  time  than  it  could  to- 
day; for  it  is  evident  that  if  the  earth  did  not  rotate 
at  all  during  that  era,  the  vapors  would  occupy  great 
heights  of  the  ancient  atmosphere,  and  the  centrifugal 
force  then  added  by  actual  rotation  would  cause  them 
to  occupy  greater  heights.  That  is,  there  were  two 
forces  operating  to  keep  the  vapors  away  from  the 
earth :  heat  repelling  them,  and  centrifugal  force  gath- 
ering them,  as  it  were,  over  the  equator,  and  whirling 
them  into  rotation  with  the  mass,  so  that  in  course  of 
time  the  vapors  must  have  occupied  a  vast  space  in  the 
equatorial  telluric  heavens,  or  firmament. 

Again  it  is  apparent,  that  whenever  the  earth  cooled 
down,  so  as  to  allow  the  vapors  to  descend,  all  that  did 
not  possess  sufficient  centrifugal  energy  to  hold  them 
on  high,  would  descend  to  the  earth.  This  was  partic- 
ularly the  case  with  all  polar  vapors,  if  any  were  there 
which  had  not  been  previously  drawn  into  the  equator- 
ial ring.  So  that  the  polar  heavens  became  clear  of 
primitive  vapors  and  all  other  matter  associated  there- 
*  Robinson's  "  Astronomy,"  page  69. 


36  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

with  before  the  equatorial  matter  could  possibly  de- 
scend upon  the  earth.  Then  it  is  plain  that  we  have 
arrived  at  an  actual  age  of  the  earth,  in  our  investiga- 
tions, when  it  rolled  through  space  with  an  annular 
appendage  over  the  equator,  while  the  stars  and  the  sun 
looked  down  upon  its  surface  as  they  do  to-day,  in  the 
circumpolar  heavens.  (See  cut  page  174.) 

At  that  age  rolled  the  first-born  ocean  around  the 
earth.  From  necessity  clouds  formed  and  rains  de- 
scended, winds  swept  over  the  earth,  summer  and  win- 
ter, and  day  and  night  joined  in  the  round  of  perpetual 
change;  for  solar  action  under  such  conditions  liter- 
ally forced  such  things  upon  the  young  planet.  When 
men  talk  about  the  "  heavy,"  "  damp  "  and  "  murky  " 
air  of  primeval  time,  they  ignore  the  fact  that  pure 
gases  are  invisible,  and  all  floating  particles,  as  mineral 
and  metallic  dust  or  particles  of  vapor,  which  render  the 
air  visible  or  murky  and  damp,  must  fall  as  surely  as  a 
flake  of  snow.  If  such  were  not  inexorable  law,  what 
kind  of  an  atmosphere  would  surround  a  planet  like 
the  earth? 

The  same  causes  operated  in  primitive  times  to  clear 
the  atmosphere  as  now  promote  that  end.  But  laying 
these  considerations  all  aside  as  comparatively  unim- 
portant, we  have  the  grand  feature  of  that  age  standing 
out  in  bold  relief,  and  that  feature  is  the  revolving  fund 
of  vapors  composing  the  annular  system.  We  must 
examine  this  more  minutely,  beginning,  as  before,  with 
known  features. 

The  outer  perimeter  of  the  revolving  vapors  con- 
densed first  because  that  part  of  the  mass  was  farthest 
removed  from  the  heated  earth.  But  in  condensing 
the  vapors  occupied  less  space  than  before.  The  mass 


Some  General  Considerations.  37 

revolved  eastward,  just  as  the  earth  rotates.  The  moon 
fell  back  westward  as  it  does  to-day,  drawing  the  rings- 
yielding  surface  after  it,  just  as  it  draws  a  tidal  wave 
westward  in  the  ocean  to-day.  Now  as  this  tidal  wave 
rolls  with  immeasurable  force  against  the  western 
shores  of  the  ocean,  it  checks  to  an  exceeding  small 
extent  the  radial  motion  of  the  earth.  It  produced  the 
same  effect  upon  the  rings.  It  put  a  brake,  as  it 
were,  upon  the  condensing  rim  of  the  great  revolving 
wheel,  affecting  the  outer  surface  more  than  the  in- 
terior. But  just  in  proportion  as  the  condensed  vapors 
were  checked,  would  they  decline  inwards,  causing  the 
segregating  particles  to  form  a  more  dense  rim  or 
boundary.  For  their  motion  being  reduced,  their  cen- 
trifugal force  would  be  diminished,  and  the  gravital 
force  comparatively  increased,  and  the  rings  would 
begin  their  decline  under  lunar  influence,  and  never 
cease  to  approach  the  earth  till  the  last  remnant  of  an- 
nular matter  reached  its  surface. 

While  this  condensation  went  on  in  the  rim,  caus- 
ing a  contraction  of  the  same  upon  the  interior  mass, 
particles  next  to  the  rim  on  the  inner  side  would  be 
attracted  to  it.  Thus  the  condensed  rim,  for  a  certain 
distance  inward,  would  gather  matter,  as  it  were,  from 
below,  thus  forming  a  hiatus  or  division  between  the 
rim  condensed  and  the  great  mass  uncondensed.  Here, 
then,  we  have  the  outermost  ring  of  the  system.  It 
can  be  readily  understood  how  that  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  this  ring  of  vapor  to  fall  in  and  unite  with  the 
mass.  Every  particle  of  the  former  having  a  velocity 
of,  say,  24,000  miles  per  hour,  could  not  unite  with 
the  rim  of  the  remaining  inner  mass,  revolving  23,000 
miles  per  hour,  any  more  than  two  aerolites  in  adjacent 


38  The  Earth's  AnmUar  System. 

paths,  one  moving  1,000  miles  per  hour  more  rapidly 
than  the  other.  And  never  until  the  first  ring  had  lost 
so  much  of  its  motion  as  to  move  with  the  same  velocity 
as  the  mass  within,  could  the  two  bodies  become  united 
again. 

The  same  process  continued  downwards  or  inwards 
would  form  the  second  ring;  likewise  the  third,  each 
separated  from  its  neighbors  with  certain  definite 
spaces  or  divisions. 

Can  any  one  following  the  index  finger  of  philosophy 
point  out  any  valid  objection  to  this  mode  of  annular 
formation  ?  When  we  shall  have  gone  over  the  geo- 
logical record  we  will  see  that  the  annular  system  was 
very  complex.  The  number  of  rings  formed  was  great, 
each  separated  from  the  rest  as  we  have  shown  above. 

Here  now  we  have  formed  the  earth's  annular  sys- 
tem, but  let  it  be  understood  that  we  are  not  now  going 
to  build  a  house  upon  this  foundation — we  are  only  ex- 
pecting to  bring  a  mass  of  evidence  to  prove  that  this 
is  the  foundation!  We  will  continually  add  testimony 
as  we  go  along,  and  we  will  not  build  the  house  until 
the  reader  can  see  an  immovable  base  to  build  upon. 
We  have  demonstrated,  so  far  as  a  physical  question  can 
be  settled  by  law,  that  there  were  waters  revolving 
about  the  earth !  We  have  shown,  as  I  think,  the  only 
reasonable  mode  of  annular  formation  and  division. 

Let  us  turn  our  glass  to  the  skies.  Yonder  is  a 
bright  gleaming  orb,  nearly  1 ,000  times  as  bulky  as  the 
earth.  Around  it  revolves  an  annular  system.  Across 
the  vast  abyss  of  nearly  one  thousand  millions  of  miles, 
we  see  Saturn's  annular  appendage,  divided  into  three 
grand  divisions,  and  these  divisions  each  further  divided 
into  a  system  of  smaller  ones.  The  number  is  not 


Some  General  Considerations.  39 

known.  The  clearest  and  best  telescopes  exhibit  the 
greatest  number  of  divisions,  so  that  it  is  likely  a  tele- 
scope of  greater  power  and  clearness  than  has  yet  been 
directed  to  it,  would  reveal  many  more.  So  here  is  a 
world  surrounded  by  a  complex  system  of  rings,  just 
as  reason  teaches  the  earth  was  at  the  close  of  archsean 
time.  It  is  divided  as  philosophic  reasoning  proclaims. 
The  exterior  ring  is  about  173,500  miles  in  diameter, 
and  is  itself  10,000  miles  broad,  and  the  innermost  one 
is  more  than  ten  thousand  miles  from  the  surface  of 
the  planet.  Here,  then,  we  have  strong  reasons  for 
claiming  that  the  process  of  annular  development  on 
both  Saturn  and  the  earth  was  the  same.  Igneous  ac- 
tion was  no  doubt  the  only  competent  cause.  We  re- 
turn to  the  consideration  of  our  own  orb,  strengthened 
in  the  belief  that  our  reasoning  is  correct. 

The  earth's  annular  system  has  fallen,  and  we  will 
now  philosophize  upon  the  manner  of  its  declension.  I 
have  said  that  the  moon  put  a  brake,  as  it  were,  upon 
this  appendage,  just  as  it  now  does  upon  the  earth,  and 
its  effect  upon  its  motion  extended  throughout  the  sys- 
tem, from  the  exterior  to  the  innermost  ring,  so  that 
when  condensation  and  segregation  had  completed  the 
system,  it  must  have  declined  bodily  toward  the  planet, 
and  of  course  the  innermost  ring  reached  the  outskirts 
of  the  earth's  atmosphere  first.  But  what  would  be 
the  immediate  effect  of  the  entrance  of  such  a  body  into 
the  upper  regions  of  the  air  ?  Slowly  it  descended,  but 
the  moment  it  touched  and  began  mingling  with  the 
air,  its  down-progress  would  be  checked.  For,  however 
rare  the  atmosphere  at  that  elevation,  it  was  matter 
occupying  space,  and  no  other  matter,  however  dense, 
could  displace  it  without  encountering  some  resistance. 


40  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

This  resistance  or  checking  force  operating  upon  the 
vapors  in  front  while  they  pushed  on  from  above  would 
cause  them  to  spread  into  the  form  of  a  belt,  and  this 
belt  would  widen  and  spread  from  the  equator  toward 
the  poles.  When  this  innermost  ring  had  so  far  de- 
clined as  to  be  freed  from  the  system,  it  of  course  con- 
tinued to  revolve  for  some  time  more  rapidly  than  the 
atmosphere  rotated  with  the  earth.  Moving  in  a  greatly 
attenuated  atmosphere  with  an  independent  motion, 
there  would  be  two  forces  resisting  its  fall,  viz:  Its 
own  independent  revolving  energy,  and  the  resistance 
afforded  by  the  atmosphere,  and  this  latter  increasing 
in  a  direction  toward  the  earth  on  account  of  greater 
density.  Under  these  conditions  the  newly-formed 
belt  would  float  away  from  the  equator  in  two  divisions, 
one  toward  each  pole,  and  must  have  reached  the 
earth's  surface  in  regions  beyond  the  tropics,  perhaps 
beyond  the  temperate  regions  and  in  the  polar  zones. 

Now,  it  is  a  well-known  physical  fact,  that  the  gravi- 
tal  force  is  stronger  in  the  polar  regions  than  elsewhere 
upon  the  earth,  from  two  causes — i.e.,  the  greater  at- 
traction, and  the  absence  of  centrifugal  force  at  the 
poles.  Thus  we  see,  as  in  the  ring  formation  the  vapors 
followed  the  direction  of  the  greatest  driving  force 
toward  the  equator,  so  in  ring  declension  they  returned 
along  the  same  line  and  fell  where  there  was  the  least 
resistance.  Now  the  resistance  occasioned  by  centri- 
fugal force  is  zero  at  the  poles,  and  gravity  is  greater 
on  this  account  alone  by  its  -%fa  part,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  polar  world  attracts  a  body  about  -5-^  more 
than  the  equatorial,  so  that  the  two  forces  combined 
make  the  gravital  tendencyy^greater  at  the  poles  than 
at  the  equator.  Hence  it  is  evident  that  a  belt  would 


Some  General  Considerations.  41 

fall  from  the  equatorial  heavens  down  to  the  polar 
world.  This  will  be  abundantly  proven  as  we  proceed. 
Now  we  see  there  must  be  a  division  between  belts  and 
space  of  time  between  falls  of  matter  from  the  annular 
system. 

There  is  another  point  in  belt  declension  we  must 
now  consider.  When  a  belt  entered  the  atmosphere, 
the  resistance  of  the  latter  would  put  a  brake  upon  it  on 
the  inner  side  and  continue  to  check  its  motion  until  it 
reached  the  earth's  surface,  or  wound  up  its  spiral  orbit 
at  each  of  the  poles.  Hence  an  equatorial  belt  neces- 
sarily revolves  more  rapidly  than  a  polar  one,  and  the 
motion  of  the  polar  one  more  nearly  represents  the 
time  of  the  planet's  rotation  than  the  equatorial;  and 
further,  the  slower  motion  of  a  polar  belt  shows  that  it 
has  been  under  the  resisting  influence  of  an  atmosphere 
longer  than  the  equatorial.  In  other  words  it  shows 
that  it  fell  from  an  annular  system  over  the  planet's 
equator,  and  has  floated  away  with  an  actual  falling 
motion  towards  the  poles.  I  state  this  as  a  demon- 
strable fact. 

Let  us  return  to  view  the  planet  Saturn,  and  see  how 
many  of  these  conditions  obtain  on  that  ringed  world. 
We  first  notice  that  it  possesses  a  number  of  belts, 
pretty  well  defined.  We  see  they  are  separated  by  visi- 
ble divisions  or  partitions  which  necessitates  the  con- 
clusion that  they  were  separated  in  the  annular  sys- 
tem, for  we  know  of  no  force  to  separate  them  after 
they  once  left  the  annular  and  assumed  the  belt  form, 
until  they  fall  at  the  poles.  We  also  find  that  the 
polar  belts  move  more  slowly  than  the  equatorial! 
Here,  then,  are  two  important  links  of  evidence  point- 
ing directly  to  the  conclusion  that  these  belts  of  Saturn 


42  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

have  descended  from  the  annular  form, — that  they  are 
revolving  in  the  outskirts  of  Saturn's  atmosphere. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  more  fully  understand 
the  importance  of  these  witnesses,  speaking  from  the 
heavens  and  bearing  emphatic  evidence  from  analogy 
that  annular  development  is  a  philosophic  and  neces- 
sary part  of  planetary  evolution,  we  must  more  min- 
utely examine  the  only  annular  system  now  visible,  and 
also  bring  in  the  invaluable  testimony  of  Jupiter,  the 
"  King  of  planets  "  and  giant  of  the  solar  system.  We 
must  be  allowed  the  privilege  of  drawing  conclusions 
respecting  the  former  condition  of  the  terraqueous 
globe,  from  present  known  condition  of  her  sister 
planets.  I  believe  the  birth,  growth  and  development 
of  worlds  are  regulated  by  inexorable  law,  and  if  one 
planet  was  ever  surrounded  by  rings,  a  sister  planet  un- 
der the  same  circumstances,  ruled  by  the  same  dynamic 
and  static  conditions  of  force,  in  process  of  development, 
must  also  be  attended  by  rings  during  some  stage  of  its 
career.  Not  that  I  ignore  the  fact  that  circumstances 
varying  must  vary  the  resulting  phenomena  of  ruling 
forces,  but  the  great  principles  of  planetary  growth 
must  obtain  on  all  planets.  It  is,  for  instance,  as  essen- 
tial that  ring-formation  should  follow  igneous  action,  as 
the  oblatoidal  form  of  a  planet  should  follow  its  rapid 
rotation.  They  are  pure  results  of  acting  forces  every- 
where apparent  in  the  solar  system,  from  the  great 
burning,  seething  and  smoking  sun,  to  the  utmost  and 
smallest  satellites.  If  we  can  detect  this  universal  dis- 
position in  the  worlds  around  us,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  our  own  has  passed  through  the  same  grand  cycles 
of  change.  Nay,  we  may  in  fact  read  the  geological 


Some  General  Considerations.  43 

history  of  the  earth  in  the  ringed  and  belted  worlds  of 
the  solar  system. 

It  must  now  be  clear  that  these  features  exhibited  by 
the  belted  vapors  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  are  vital  con- 
siderations. Modern  science  has  established  beyond  a 
doubt  the  fact  that  the  motion  of  their  polar  belts  is 
slower  than  the  equatorial.  From  this  we  are  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  revolve  nearer  their  pri- 
maries. 

If  those  belts  could  by  any  possibility  increase  their 
motion  they  would  rise  and  revolve  in  a  larger  orbit. 
That  is,  they  would  move  from  the  poles  toward  the 
equator.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  equatorial  belts 
should  lose  the  smallest  part  of  their  motion  they  would 
sink  along  the  lines  of  least  resistance  and  greatest 
attraction — i.e.,  toward  the  poles.  Now  can  it  be  pos- 
sible in  a  universe  of  unchanging  law,  that  one  planet 
could  become  the  possessor  of  a  ring-system  unless  the 
causes  that  formed  it  were  universal  ?  Can  it  be  possi- 
ble that  the  earth,  under  the  influences  of  these  univer- 
sal causes,  has  not  passed  through  the  same  mode  of 
planetary  evolution  ?  I  can  no  more  doubt  the  univer- 
sality of  this  process,  than  I  can  doubt  that  an  apple 
would  fall  from  a  Saturnian  or  Jovian  tree;  and  when 
we  see,  that  in  addition  to  this  necessarily  universal 
annular  development,  the  condition  of  the  primitive 
earth  demands  such  development,  we  are  not  even 
allowed  to  entertain  a  doubt  upon  the  subject.  If  the 
laws  of  gravitation  be  universal,  the  causes  of  annular 
formation  are  also,  and  effects  must  follow.  It  may  be 
said  unknown  conditions  may  modify  the  operations  of 
the  law.  Certainly  this  is  true,  but  they  may  also  mod- 
ify the  operations  of  the  law  of  universal  gravitation; 


44  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

yet,  where  is  the  man  who  doubts  its  universal  applica- 
tion in  the  midst  of  all  modifying  tendencies? 

From  this  it  must  be  seen  that  the  mere  fact  that 
Jupiter's  and  Saturn's  polar  belts  move  more  slowly 
than  the  equatorial,  is  positive  proof  that  they  have 
moved  from  the  equatorial  regions,  and  therefore  there 
is  a  perpetual  tendency  in  the  solar  system  now  for  all 
belts  to  fall  at  the  poles!  Here,  then,  we  are  simply 
impelled  to  admit  that  the  original  form  of  all  re- 
volving planetary  belts,  was  annular,  and  that  they  were 
located  in  the  equatorial  regions  of  all  planets  during 
some  period  of  their  history.  The  supposition  also  that 
these  belts  must  reach  the  surface  of  the  planets  in  stu- 
pendous downfalls,  during  intervals  of  immeasurable 
time,  receives  here  an  emphatic  avowal. 

Thus  by  following  the  path  pointed  out,  by  the  unerr- 
ing voice  of  law,  we  may  look  upon  those  giant  worlds, 
and  read  a  history  of  the  mighty  changes  that  made  our 
world  what  it  is  to-day.  For  unknown  ages  rings  and 
belts  attended  the  earth.  One  by  one  they  declined 
and  reached  its  surface  around  the  poles.  Grand  stu- 
pendous arches  spread  over  the  face  of  the  firmament 
when  no  man  was  here  to  see;  when  the  wild  denizen 
of  a  wild  world  alone  roamed  its  boundless  wastes, 
thoughtless  of  impending  calamity.  When  we  gaze 
upon  the  fearful  and  terrifying  elements,  when  cloud 
meets  cloud,  and  deep  frowns  on  deep  in  the  battlefields 
of  nature,  what  pimy  things  we  are  in  the  wondrous 
arena !  But  suppose  we  dwelt  to-day  on  a  ringed 
world,  and  could  see  all  these  features  and  conditions  a 
thousand  times  intensified !  We  would  stand  appalled 
at  the  fearful  grandeur  and  majesty  of  world-making. 

We  must  look  at  our  earth  in  its  spasms  and  eternal 


Fig.  2.     EARTH  COOLED  FROM  A  MOLTEN  STATE. 

(ITS    RIXG    SYSTEM    FORMED.) 

After  the  lapse  of  immeasurable  time,  tlie  earth  had  cooled 
down,  forming  a  firm  foundation  for  subsequent  deposits.  The 
great  mass  of  expelled  vapors  had  condensed.  Some  of  these 
had  returned  to  the  earth's  surface,  forming  the  first  ocean, — 
a  world  expanse  of  waters, —  and  a  world  casement  of  sediment- 
ary beds.  In  that  ocean  the  first  forms  of  life  appeared.  High 
over  the  equator,  as  if  anchored  to  the  skies,  a  vast  ring  system 
had  formed  from  the  higher  and  lighter  elements,  which  gravi- 
tated each  to  its  proper  place  in  the  system,  according  to  its  spe- 
cific gravity.  Fig.  2  represents  this  ringed  world,  with  its  rings 
turned  edgewise  to  the  observer,  and  the  planet  covered  with  a 
universal  ocean,  that  ocean  teeming  with  rudimtntal  life,  and  the 
sun  shining  on  the  earth  much  as  it  does  to-day. 


Some  General  Considerations.  45 

revolutions  if  we  would  embrace  half  the  meaning  of 
annular  work  in  by-gone  ages.  While  rivers  flow  and 
bear  their  burdens  to  the  sea,  while  the  all-devouring 
waves  prey  upon  the  continents  and  are  unceasingly  at 
work  in  building  up  strata  in  the  seas  and  lakes  of  the 
earth,  we  must  not  forget  to  acknowledge  the  tribute  of 
the  earth's  annular  system  in  building  up  the  sedi- 
mentary beds  of  the  planet. 


CHAPTER  in. 

SOME   CONSIDERATIONS   BESPECTING   SATUBN,   JUPITEE 

AND  MARS,   AND  THE  EVIDENCE   THEY  SUPPLY  IN 

SUPPORT   OF   THE  ANNULAR  THEORY. 

Saturn  is  not  quite  seven  hundred  times  greater  in 
volume  than  the  earth,  but  he  is  so  light, — having  a 
specific  gravity  less  than  threefourths  that  of  water, 
that  he  is  only  about  ninety  times  as  heavy.  Proctor 
says :  "  Gravity  at  his  equator  is  almost  exactly  equal 
to  gravity  at  the  earth's  surface.  Near  the  poles  there 
is  a  marked  increase  in  the  action  of  Saturnian  gravity, 
insomuch  that  a  body  weighing  ten  pounds  at  his 
equator  would  weigh  about  twelve  pounds  at  either 
pole."  It  is  more  than  likely  that  Proctor  was  mis- 
taken, as  it  must  be  conceded  that  we  have  never  seen 
the  actual  face  of  Saturn,  and  therefore  do  not  know 
how  rapidly  he  revolves.  Hence  all  notions  as  to  the 
comparative  polar  and  equatorial  gravital  forces,  are 
necessarily  vain.  He  also  speaks  of  total  solar  eclipses, 
in  the  latitudes  corresponding  to  those  of  London  and 
Madrid,  of  five  and  seven  years'  duration.  But  the 
solar  orb  is  never  visible  to  the  Saturnians;  for,  the 
over-canopying  fund  of  vapors  must  exclude  it  from 
view.  It  is,  however,  easily  demonstrated  that  the  in- 
habitants of  Saturn,  from  this  very  circumstance,  are  in 
the  midst  of  eternal  day,  from  the  total  diffusion  of 
light  throughout  his  revolving  envelope,  which  from 
necessity  becomes  an  actual  light-bearer.  All  the  sun- 
light received  by  Saturn  is  poured  into  his  belts  and 
rings.  Every  floating  particle  of  vapor  or  mineral  aids 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  47 

in  the  total  diffusion.  And  the  student  in  optical  science 
will  readily  understand,  how  there  could  be  but  a  sign 
of  the  alternation  of  day  and  night,  on  a  planet  sur- 
rounded by  vaporous  belts  and  light-bearing  zones  of 
revolving  matter. 

A  planet  surrounded  by  a  lofty  vaporous  atmosphere 
can  have  but  the  merest  shadow  of  night  while  the  solar 
beams  pour  into  it.  Neither  could  there  be  alternation 
of  seasons,  while  the  solar  heat  entered  such  a  revolving 
envelope.  Let  us  examine  this  a  little  farther.  This 
difference  of  polar  and  equatorial  gravity  is  true  as  to 
the  envelope  of  Saturn  and  shows  emphatically  the 
necessary  conclusion  that  the  belts  must  gravitate  to 
the  poles  in  order  to  fall.  Thus,  Saturn's  equatorial 
belt  presses  directly  downward  with  a  certain  force;  but 
its  own  centrifugal  force,  and  the  resisting  atmosphere 
prevent  its  motion  in  that  direction.  Xow  at  the  same 
time,  while  this  belt  is  equipoised,  in  mid-heaven  we  may 
say,  another  force  is  actually  exerted  to  pull  it  down 
via  the  poles.  A  lateral  motion  must  be  the  inevitable 
result,  and  this  must  end  in  a  universal  canopy. 

It  is  also  plain  that,  if  all  Saturn's  belts,  except  his 
equatorial  one,  should  fall,  the  single  belt,  if  large, 
would,  in  spreading  toward  the  poles,  shut  out  the 
direct  sunlight  from  the  surface  of  the  planet. 

Admit  a  single  beam  of  sunlight  in  a  chamber  of  mid- 
night darkness  filled  with  steam,  and  you  will  see  the 
whole  room  illuminated.  The  steam  carries  the  light 
into  the  darkest  corner.  A  jet  of  water,  illuminated 
just  as  it  leaves  the  hose  by  the  calcium  light  in  the 
midst  of  total  darkness,  will  appear  as  a  beautiful 
stream  of  light  as  far  as  it  can  be  thrown.  Any  one 
can  perform  these  experiments  for  himself,  and  prove 


48  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

to  his  own  satisfaction  that  watery  vapors,  snowy  par- 
ticles, or  almost  any  floating  particles  except  actual  ab- 
sorbents of  light,  are  actual  light-bearers.  Then  a 
great  mass  of  attentuated  clouds  or  vapors,  unpacked  by 
tempests,  high  above  Saturn's  surface  and  extending  all 
around  him,  one  half  illuminated  directly  by  the  whole 
light  of  the  sun,  must  inevitably  carry  the  light  of  day 
around  the  planet;  or  even  a  jet  of  water  projected 
around  a  planet,  would  appear  as  a  light-giving  ring, 
and  if  that  ring  were  extensive  enough,  it  would  anni- 
hilate night.  Not  that  the  parts  of  the  envelope  of 
vapor,  or  jet  of  water  farthest  from  the  sun,  would  be 
as  light  or  luminous  as  the  rest,  but  that  the  columns 
rising  from  the  eastern  and  western  skies,  brilliantly 
illuminated  and  spreading  out  fan-shaped  in  the  zenith, 
would  illuminate  the  planet's  surface.  While  in  the 
case  of  a  wide  belt,  or  a  universal  envelope,  the  light 
from  the  eastern  sky  would  mingle  more  profusely  with 
that  from  the  western,  and  the  illumination  would  be 
BO  general  that  it  would  be  scarcely  possible  for  day  and 
night  to  alternate  as  we  see  now  on  earth.  While  one 
belt  remained  in  the  Saturnian  or  Jovial  heavens  there 
could  be  no  true  night  there.  If  a  single  moon  shining 
on  earth  can  so  clearly  dispel  darkness  by  its  reflected 
light,  that  one  can  some  times  read  a  common  print  at 
midnight;  what  must  be  the  luminous  effects  of  a  uni- 
versal light-bearing  canopy? — a  reflector  equal  to 
thousands  of  moons.  Even  when  our  atmosphere  con- 
tains more  floating  particles  of  vapor,  or  cosmic  dust 
than  usual,  its  daylight  is  sensibly  extended ;  and  we  can 
readily  understand  then  how  our  atmosphere  might  be- 
come so  full  of  aqueous  particles,  as  to  extend  morn- 
ing and  evening  twilight  far  into  the  night.  But  such 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  49 

particles  in  an  atmosphere  no  more  extensive  than  that 
of  the  earth,  could  have  but  small  effect  compared 
with  arching  vapors  high  in  the  heavens.  If  we 
could  transfer  a  cloud  from  the  full  light  of  day  with 
all  the  light  it  contained,  into  midnight  darkness,  how 
brilliant  it  would  appear !  How  it  would  illumine  the 
clouds  around  it !  So  that  in  philosophizing  upon  the 
conditions  of  our  sister  planets,  astronomers,  I  believe, 
have  erred  by  neglecting  these  facts.  Let  the  reader 
note  this  philosophic  deduction  of  perpetual  day,  for 
it  will  come  in  as  startling  evidence  in  its  proper  place. 

One  of  the  strongest  points  I  have  to  present  to  show 
that  the  bands  and  belts  of  these  giants  of  the  solar  sys- 
tem move  almost  independently  of  the  central  orbs, 
is  the  velocity  with  which  they  apparently  rotate.  It 
is  admitted  by  most  astronomers  that  we  cannot  see  the 
actual  surfaces  or  bodies  of  these  planets.  Then  it 
must  be  admitted  that  we  do  not  know  the  length  of 
a  Jovial  or  Saturnian  day.  We  do  know  the  length  of 
a  day  on  Mars,  or  on  Venus,  even  to  the  fraction  of  a 
minute,  and  we  also  approximately  know  the  time  of 
the  rotation  of  Mercury,  and  that  these  three  planets 
and  the  earth  rotate  in  about  the  same  length  of  time; 
none  varying  more  than  a  few  minutes  from  a  terres- 
trial day,  or  nearly  twenty-four  hours.  ]STow  it  does 
not  seem  likely  that  Saturn,  about  700  times  more 
bulky  and  ninety  times  as  heavy  as  the  earth,  or  that 
Jupiter,  more  than  1200  times  as  large,  and  out- weigh- 
ing the  earth  three  hundred  times,  would,  in  the  same 
system,  and  under  the  same  laws,  rotate  more  than 
twice  as  rapidly  as  any  of  the  four  interior  planets 
named.  It  seems  inharmonious.  If,  therefore,  we 
should  assume  the  Saturnian  day  to  be  about  24  hours 


50  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

long  and  knowing  its  exterior  envelope  to  rotate  in 
about  10£  hours,  we  should  find  evidence  to  support  this 
assumption,  from  the  very  highest  authority,  my  read- 
ers will  certainly  allow  me  the  liberty  of  ignoring  the 
long  cherished  idea  that  Saturn's  light  belts  are  his  at- 
mospheric clouds,  as  commonly  understood,  and  his  dark 
ones  but  rifts  in  the  same,  revealing  the  body  of  the 
planet,  as  some  suppose.  If  the  earth  should  rotate  so 
that  a  particle  of  matter  on  its  equator  should  move 
about  290  miles  per  minute,  a  cloud  would  be  thrown 
outward  to  the  very  limit  of  our  atmosphere,  and  be 
impelled  to  move  in  an  independent  orbit  about  the 
earth.  This  is  so  plain  that  the  merest  novice  in  as- 
tronomy must  understand  it.  But  Jupiter's  clouds 
move  at  the  rate  of  nearly  470  miles  per  minute.  Such 
a  velocity  would  fling  a  terrestrial  cloud  thousands  of 
miles  beyond  the  atmosphere,  and  cause  it  to  move 
around  the  earth.  But  a  cloud  on  Jupiter's  surface 
weighs  about  two  and  a  half  times  as  much  as  on  earth, 
so  that  a  simple  calculation  will  show  that  with  the 
above  velocity,  Jupiter's  clouds,  whatever  they  may  be, 
are  to  a  great  extent  independent  of  the  planet  so  far 
as  velocity  or  rate  of  radial  motion  is  concerned.  That 
is,  if  the  same  static  and  dynamic  forces  exist  upon 
Jupiter  as  on  earth,  his  bands  and  belts  revolve  about 
him.  It  also  follows  that  there  can  be  no  true  clouds 
in  Jupiter's  atmosphere.  We  know  that  with  such 
velocity,  no  clouds  could  exist  in  our  atmosphere,  even 
with  all  the  necessary  difference  of  conditions  elimi- 
nated. We  also  know  that  a  cloud  placed  in  the  out- 
skirts of  our  atmosphere  must  revolve  about  the  earth, 
or  fall  immediately  toward  its  surface,  and  occupy  its 
proper  level.  Can  Jupiter  be  an  exception?  Hence 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  51 

it  seems  necessarily  to  follow,  that  if  Jupiter  has  any 
clouds,  they  are  raised  beyond  the  region  of  floating 
clouds,  and  hence  beyond  the  region  of  storms  and  tem- 
pests. 

The  same  conditions  maybe  predicated  of  Saturn, said 
conditions  differing  in  character,  as  the  forces  existing 
differ  in  degree.  In  this  planet,  however,  we  have  more 
direct  and  emphatic  testimony.  So  that  while  Jupiter 
leads  us  to  the  above  conclusion,  Saturn  forces  us  to  the 
same.  It  is  well  known  that  this  planet  sometimes 
presents  what  is  called  the  "  square  shouldered  aspect;  " 
that  is,  in  some  parts  of  his  orbit  it  is  not  only  flattened 
in  the  polar,  but  also  in  the  equatorial  region.*  Some- 
times this  equatorial  depression  extends  over  65°  to  80°. 
This,  I  conceive,  is  readily  explained  by  the  planet's 
vapors  revolving  in  ellipses,  which  they  necessarily 
must  do.  In  certain  parts  of  the  planet's  orbit,  we  see 
the  depressed  sides  of  the  ellipse,  and  consequently  a 
flattened  equatorial  region;  and  when  the  major  axes 
are  more  inclined  to  our  line  of  vision,  we  see,  as  it 
were,  the  ends  of  the  ellipses,  when  Saturn  seems  ex- 
cessively flattened  at  the  poles, — midway  between  these 
points,  the  equatorial  and  polar  regions  both  are  de- 
pressed. 

Thus  the  annular  theory  throws  light  upon  one  of 
the  most  inveterate  puzzles;  one  that  has  for  half  a 
century  perplexed  astronomers,  and  defied  solution.  I 
offer  the  suggestion  that  no  other  solution  can  be  found. 
The  same  appearance  in  a  less  striking  degree  is  some- 
times seen  upon  Jupiter.  Thus  it  seems  that  the  two 
planets  under  consideration,  are  respectively  sur- 
rounded by  a  vast  fund  of  revolving  matter,  and  that 

*  Proctor's  "  Other  Worlds  Than  Ours,"  pages  168,  169. 


52  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

this  matter  in  its  motion  follows  the  same  laws  that  reg- 
ulate planetary  motion  everywhere. 

Now  it  is  readily  seen  that  this  tendency  to  quad- 
rangular form  on  Saturn,  becomes  irrefragable  evi- 
dence of  annular  motion  among  his  belts.  But  recent 
observations  show  that  the  polar  belts  of  both  Jupiter 
and  Saturn  move  more  slowly  than  the  equatorial. 

But  as  before  shown  the  simple  fact  that  the  polar 
belts  of  these  planets  have  a  slower  motion,  affords 
irrefutable  testimony  that  they  at  one  time  were  a  part 
and  parcel  of  an  equatorial  ring  system,  and  that  they 
also  have  lost  some  part  of  their  velocity  since  they 
entered  the  planet's  atmospheres,  and  are  therefore  con- 
tinually descending  toward  the  poles,  and  at  the  poles 
are  continually  reaching  the  planet's  surfaces.  Let  the 
reader  note  this  fact. 

Thus  away  out  yonder,  toward  the  bounds  of  the  solar 
system,  we  see  two  giant  worlds  undergoing  the  same 
stupendous  ordeals  that  in  ages  gone  by,  our  little  earth 
experienced.  The  heavens  speak  as  with  tongues  of 
fire,  and  we  hear  celestial  harmonies  proclaim  eternal 
law  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  space  and  time. 

But  what  are  those  belts,  now  revealed  by  the  tele- 
scope ?  What  kinds  of  matter  constitute  those  annular 
and  belt  systems  ?  Law  replies : — "  They  are  composed 
of  the  same  materials  in  kind,  that  now  compose  the 
bodies  of  the  planets  themselves." 

Now  I  suppose  no  one  will  dispute  the  claim  that 
Jupiter's  belts  are,  aside  from  the  aqueous  matter  they 
contain,  composed  of  the  very  same  elements  that  now 
compose  the  super-crust  of  the  earth.  Then  it  must  be 
they  contain  silicious,  calcareous  and  carbonaceous  mat- 
ter. But  if  they  contain  these,  they  will  in  time  be- 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  53 

come  a  part  of  Jupiter's  sedimentary  formations,  for 
as  I  have  before  shown  they  must  fall.  It  is  impossible, 
as  any  one  can  see,  that  such  matter  should  not  exist 
in  the  primeval  vapors  of  every  world,  and  the  primeval 
vapors  are  the  last  form  of  matter  that  descends  upon 
an  evolving  planet.  And  it  must  be,  as  I  shall  show 
hereafter,  that  unconsumed  carbon  occupies  a  large 
space  among  all  such  revolving  vapors. 

I  ask  the  simple  question,  Is  there  any  other  escape 
from  this  conclusion  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  within  the  com- 
prehension of  every  one,  that  if  Jupiter's  belts  contain 
calcium,  iron,  or  carbon,  that  that  calcium,  that  iron, 
and  that  carbon,  will  in  the  coming  ages  be  located  as 
parts  and  parcels  of  the  sedimentary  beds  of  Jupiter's 
super-crust?  The  laws  of  segregation  and  gravitation 
are  the  same,  we  may  safely  assert,  on  Jupiter  as  on  the 
earth.  Then  as  carbon  is  a  constituent, — nay,  a  prom- 
inent constituent  of  worlds,  and  a  fiery  burning  condi- 
tion a  necessary  condition  of  those  worlds  at  some 
time  of  their  career,  it  follows  as  plainly  as  the  sun  fol- 
lows its  course  in  the  heavens,  that  as  all  the  last  de- 
scending materials  of  those  worlds  must  fall  upon  their 
surfaces  they  must  and  will  become  a  part  of  the  con- 
stituents of  the  aqueous  rocks  of  every  orb  that  ever  was 
enveloped  in  such  vapors.  On  this  eternal  rock  I  stand, 
and  though  the  cruel,  heartless  elements  now  gathering 
blackness  and  fury  from  the  realm  of  error  may  sweep 
me  from  it,  this  eternal  rock  will  remain. 

Now  when  we  have  passed  over  this  ground,  and  sur- 
veyed minutely  the  close  and  interesting  analogies  visi- 
ble on  all  sides,  we  seem  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
Jupiter  once  had  equatorial  rings  the  same  as  Saturn. 
But  when  we  turn  to  Mars,  we  see  his  polar  ice  caps, 


54  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

we  see  his  floating  clouds,  we  see  his  oceans,  and  how 
shall  we  answer  this  question  ?  Were  the  Martial  seas 
always  upon  his  surface?  One  moment's  philosophic 
reflection  must  bring  the  response  of  "  no,"  from  the 
seat  of  reason.  The  over-cautious  setiologist  may  say, 
"  we  cannot  tell."  Nay,  but  we  can  tell.  The  Crea- 
tor of  heaven  and  earth  points  us  to  facts  that  can  lead 
us  nowhere  else.  Mars  is  an  aggregation  of  matter, 
gathered  and  formed  into  a  globe,  as  countless  millions 
of  other  globes,  and  formed  under  the  same  physical 
laws  that  governed  others,  and  the  earth  is  a  God- 
given  key  for  the  mind  of  man  to  unlock  the  whole. 
Man  is  no  more  sure  that  the  earth  was  once  a  glow- 
ing and  burning  orb,  than  he  is  that  Mars  was  a  fire- 
born  and  igneous  planet.  Then  his  oceans  were  his 
swaddling  garments,  wrapped  about  him  by  the  genii 
of  the  heavens.  Though  not  so  extensive  as  ours,  yet 
there  are  oceans  on  his  surface,  and  they  must  have 
fallen  thither  from  the  heavens  around  him.  Do  not 
understand  me  to  claim  that  each  planet  is  a  represen- 
tative of  all  the  rest  in  all  particulars.  Mars  may  have 
an  atmosphere  varying  from  that  of  all  the  rest.  His 
seas  differ  in  their  constituent  salts,  etc.  His  strata  may 
be  different  in  many  respects.  Nay,  even  the  color 
of  his  landscape  may  be  different  from  ours.  These 
are  things  that  vary  under  varying  circumstances. 
But  there  are  planetary  conditions  that  must  obtain  in 
every  planet.  We  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
Mars  has  an  atmosphere !  We  would  conclude  thus  if 
we  had  never  detected  it.  We  would  be  impelled  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  possessed  oceans  if  we  had  never 
seen  them,  just  as  we  are  impelled  to  believe  that  he  is 
under  the  pale  of  the  law  of  gravitation ;  for  we  can  no 


Baturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  55 

more  ignore  one  than  the  other.  Men  may  say  that 
a  planet's  oceans  may  be  absorbed  by  its  beds  of  rock, 
but  one  might  as  well  deny  that  a  planet  has  rock,  as  to 
deny  that  it  has  water.  Our  moon  has  imbibed  her 
oceans;  the  earth  is  doing  the  same  thing;  but  the  fact 
that  oceans  are  thus  absorbed  has  no  force  at  all  against 
the  claim  that  all  planets  and  their  moons  must  have 
water  in  some  form  about  them,  upon  them  or  within 
them;  and  that  it  fell  to  their  surfaces  from  annular 
systems. 

We  see  the  same  process  now  on  a  grand  and  meas- 
ureless scale  in  the  solar  orb.  His  aqueous  vapors  must 
be  driven  millions  of  miles  from  his  surface.  His  heat 
is  BO  great  at  the  distance  of  the  planet  Mercury, 
nearly  37,000,000  of  miles  from  his  center,  that  water 
could  only  exist  there  in  a  state  of  vapor.  We  know 
very  well  in  his  flaming  envelope  are  glowing,  heavy 
minerals  and  metals,  and  must  conclude  that  the  vapors 
of  lighter  minerals,  etc.,  sublimed  in  the  solar  surface, 
must  occupy  space  far  beyond  and  above  the  photo- 
sphere, or  his  atmosphere.  The  spectroscope  leaves 
this  beyond  a  doubt.  We  all  know  that  analogy  re- 
quires that  there  should  be  above  all  other  elements, 
a  great  fund  of  carbon,  surrounding  the  solar  sphere. 
The  Titanic  furnace  that  vivifies  the  solar  system,  does 
not  reveal  more  than  a  trace  of  it  in  the  spectrum. 
Then  it  must  be  so  high  above  the  sun's  surface  as  not 
to  be  detected.  We  know  not  how  far  this  carbon  fund 
extends.  But  we  do  know  as  comets  approach  the 
solar  orb,  they  grow  brighter,  until  sometimes  they 
burst  into  actual  flames;  when  the  spectroscope  re- 
veals the  fact  that  the  flames  are  partly  burning  carbon. 
But,  I  think  we  may  safely  say,  that  law  demands  that 


56  The  Earth's.  Annular  System. 

in  the  solar  heavens  must  be  a  vast  fund  of  allotropic 
carbon  distilled  in  the  solar  alembic,  and  driven  from 
this  fiery  center  to  float  as  infinitesimal  particles  in  the 
comet's  path;  and,  finally,  when  the  inveterate  fires  of 
the  sun  shall  have  died  out,  as  they  must  in  time,  these 
forms  of  carbon,  with  associated  aqueous  and  mineral 
matters,  will  form  into  an  annular  system  around  that 
great  orb.  Its  aqueous  vapors,  or  light-bearing  bands, 
will  then  form  bright  portions  of  the  system,  and  the 
carbons  the  dark  and  dusky  belts.  The  sun  must  be 
a  forming  world.  What  other  conclusion  can  the  in- 
exorable and  universal  laws  of  planetary  evolution  lead 
us  to  ?  This  is  simply  the  declaration  of  Deity,  in- 
scribed in  letters  of  flame  all  over  the  universe.  And 
with  this,  is  written  the  glowing  command,  "  Philoso- 
pher, read  these  lines  !  " 

Now  one  retrospective  glance.  Look  at  the  dark 
and  dusky  bands  or  belts  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn.  When 
we  know  that  these  worlds  have  passed  through  the  forge 
of  Vulcan;  when  we  know  that  those  bodies  from  their 
inmost  depths  have  been  boiling,  seething,  and  tossing 
masses  of  liquid  fire;  and  that  to  their  inmost  depths, 
carbon  was  one  of  their  prominent  constituents,  and  was 
therefore  one  of  the  sublimed  and  distilled  products  in- 
corporated with  aqueous  vapors  in  an  upper  ocean,  how 
can  we  avoid  the  conclusion  that  those  dark  belts  are 
necessarily  carbon?  Can  we  by  ransacking  the  great 
laboratory  of  nature,  find  any  other  element  that  can 
be  made  to  take  its  place  ?  The  simple  fact  stands  out 
prominently  to  the  philosopher's  gaze,  that  so  surely 
as  Jupiter  and  Saturn  have  passed  through  a  state  of 
igneous  fusion,  so  surely  are  they  now  enveloped  by 
bands  of  primitive  carbon,  in  all  its  allotropic  forms. 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  57 

We  can  no  more  ignore  this  fact,  than  we  can  ignore 
the  fact  that  carbon  is  distilled  in  the  smelter's  furnace 
in  reducing  his  ores;  no  more  than  we  can  ignore  the 
fact  that  the  same  products  are  formed  in  the  retorts  of 
the  gas-furnace. 

A  burning  world  must  be  a  smoking  world ;  and  from 
its  ten  thousand  furnaces  must  rise  vast  volumes  of  un- 
consumed  carbon  to  mingle  with  suspended  vapors.  If 
we  deny  this  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  burning 
or  igneous  world  was  enveloped  by  an  ocean  of  oxygen, 
which  runs  counter  to  law.  Hence  it  is  evident  that 
every  igneous  world — i.e.,  every  annular  system,  has, 
or  must  have  had  a  fund  of  unconsumed  carbon  as  one 
of  its  prominent  components.  Let  the  reader  remem- 
ber this,  for  upon  it  depends  the  solution  of  a  momen- 
tous problem.  As  I  run  over  this  fascinating  line  of 
thought,  I  am  tempted  to  enlarge  upon  numerous  ques- 
tions that  naturally  press  into  my  view.  A  hundred 
lateral  avenues  open  up,  inviting  to  enter  and  behold, 
but  even  a  brief  consideration  of  them  would  swell  this 
volume  beyond  proper  limits.*  I  will,  therefore,  stop 
short  with  the  consideration  of  one  of  these  collateral 
questions. 

Jupiter  and  Saturn  have  moons  revolving  about 
them.  They  are  located  according  to  unchanging  law, 
at  a  distance  from  their  primaries  measured  by  their 
velocities  and  gravital  force.  These  two  forces  must 
be  equal,  to  keep  the  satellites  in  undeviating  orbits. 
Now  it  is  an  indisputable  fact,  as  every  mathematician 
or  astronomer  will  admit,  that  Saturn's  annular  system 
does  to  some  extent  influence  the  motions  of  his  moons, 

*  In  the  "  Vast  Abyss,"  or  second  book  in  the  annular  series, 
these  fascinating  fields  will  be  reviewed. 


58  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

and  thus  aid  in  defining  the  shape  of  their  orbits  and 
regulating  their  distance  from  the  planet.  To  illus- 
trate :  A  planet  attracts  a  moon,  say,  with  a  force  equal 
to  A,  and  the  latter  takes  up  its  orbit  or  path  in  harmony 
with  that  amount  of  attraction.  If,  by  some  process,  a 
ring  of  any  kind  of  matter  should  become  interposed  be- 
tween the  moon  and  its  primary,  the  central  attraction 
would  be  increased,  say  =  to  B,  and  the  moon  would 
immediately  begin  to  sink  nearer  to  the  primary,  agree- 
ably to  the  force  A  +  B  exerted  upon  it.  If  this  ring 
of  matter  arose  from  the  planet  itself,  it  would  not  in 
the  least  vitiate  the  conclusion  that  the  moon  was  at- 
tracted with  a  greater  force  than  before;  for,  it  would 
only  be  a  transfer  of  attracting  matter  from  the  primary 
to  a  point  where  it  could  exert  a  greater  force  upon  the 
moon.  If  the  distance  of  the  moon  were  100,000  miles 
from  the  matter  on  the  planet,  before  the  ring  had 
formed,  and  the  ring  were  then  placed  within  50,000 
miles  of  the  satellite  or  one-half  the  former  distance,  it 
would  attract  it  with  four  times  the  force  it  formerly 
did.  And  the  moon,  as  before  stated,  would  take  up  a 
position  a  little  nearer  the  planet.  Hence  the  conclu- 
sion is  inevitable  that  Saturn's  moons  revolve  a  little 
nearer  the  planet  because  he  has  an  annular  system, 
than  they  would  if  he  had  none ! 

What,  then,  must  be  the  result  when  Saturn's  glori- 
ous appendage  declines  to  his  surface  ?  Simply  the  cord 
of  attraction  will  be  weakened,  and  the  moons  will  not 
be  controlled  by  the  same  force,  and  they  will  retire, 
and  after  a  lapse  of  ages  they  will  move  in  orbits 
farther  from  the  planet. 

Hence  the  conclusion  that  a  planet's  satellite  must 
move  away  from  the  primary  after  its  annular  system 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  59 

sinks  is  inevitable.  Now  the  point  gained  by  this  dis- 
cussion is  becoming  apparent.  Eminent  astronomers 
claim  that  our  moon  is  moving  away  from  the  earth 
with  a  motion  very  slow,  but  "  exceeding  sure."  If  this 
claim  be  a  valid  one  we  must  conclude  that  the  earth 
once  had  an  annular  system  which  fell  and  allowed  the 
moon  to  recede.  Here,  then,  we  have  very  important 
testimony  bearing  upon  this  point.  For,  if  the  moon 
is  receding,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that  some  other  force 
could  produce  this  recession,  it  becomes  proof  of  itself, 
that  the  earth  had  such  an  appendage. 

I  am  aware  that  astronomers  are  to-day  making  the 
claim  that  this  recession  is  caused  by  a  reaction  of  the 
tidal  wave  upon  the  moon.  (The  reader  must  not  con- 
clude that  this  recession  and  consequent  retardation 
affects  the  periodical  acceleration,  and  retardation  of 
the  moon  is  caused  by  a  change  in  the  eccentricity  of 
the  earth's  orbit.)  That  the  moon  is  retarded  first  by 
a  check  which  the  progressing  or  rather  swinging  wave 
exerts  upon  it,  then  she  moves  away  in  response  to  the 
demands  of  diminished  motion.  In  other  words,  the 
erudite  conclusion  is,  that  if  a  satellite  be  checked  in  its 
motion  it  must  move  away  from  the  primary.  Then 
the  slower  the  moon's  motion  about  the  earth,  the 
farther  off  it  must  move,  and  consequently  the  greater 
its  velocity,  the  less  the  orbit,  which  is  simply  not  the 
case. 

Now  it  is  very  true  that  if  the  moon  recede  from 
the  earth  with  its  present  velocity  unchanged,  it  will 
move  in  a  greater  orbit,  and  of  course  consume  more 
time  in  a  revolution;  in  other  words,  its  motion  will  be 
apparently  retarded.  But  a  satellite  cannot  recede 
because  its  velocity  is  retarded.  Astronomers  have 


60  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

misapprehended  the  nature  of  the  problem.  In  order 
to  show  that  I  do  not  misrepresent,  I  will  quote  from 
R.  A.  Proctor.*  "  Delaunay  pointed  to  the  tides  as  a 
probable  and  sufficient  cause  of  this  change, — the  great 
tidal  wave  carried,  not  bodily,  but  still  swayingly 
against  the  direction  of  rotation,  checking  the  earth's 
rotation  spin  slowly  but  exceeding  surely.  Next  it 
was  shown  that,  accompanying  this  change  there  must 
be  a  gradual  loss  of  lunar  motion,  accompanied  by 
a  gradual  recession  of  the  moon."  (Italics  mine.) 

If  this  be  true,  law  is  law  no  longer.  If  a  moon  re- 
cedes because  it  is  checked  in  its  motion  to  a  slight 
degree,  its  recession  will  be  greater  if  the  retardation 
be  greater,  and  if  the  retardation  be  sufficient  to  stop 
its  motion  entirely,  its  recession  will  be  in  a  tangent 
to  its  original  orbit.  We  can  make  nothing  else  of  this 
astronomical  claim;  for,  let  us  remember  that  the  tidal 
wave  first  retards  the  moon's  velocity, — causes  a  "  loss 
of  lunar  motion,"  and  then  it  recedes!  Either  this  or 
the  attraction  of  the  tidal  wave  causes  it  to  recede. 
With  all  due  regards  for  the  noble  minds  which  have 
been  puzzled  over  this  problem,  I  must  say  astrono- 
mers are  mistaken. 

If  a  satellite's  motion  be  retarded  it  will  decline 
toward  the  central  body,  and  the  greater  the  retarda- 
tion the  greater  the  decline,  until  it  falls  to  the  prim- 
ary. But  if  a  satellite  recede  by  loss  of  attraction  from 
the  central  body,  it  takes  longer  to  perform  a  revolu- 
tion. Hence  we  say  it  is  retarded,  though  it  move  aa 
rapidly  as  ever.  If  it  moves  inward  on  account  of  an 
increase  of  attraction,  it  revolves  in  a  smaller  orbit, 

*  "  Eclectic  Magazine,"  May,  1882,  taken  from  "  Contemporary 
Review." 


Saturn,  Jupiter  and  Mars.  61 

and  consequently  in  less  time,  and  we  say  its  motion  is 
accelerated,  though  it  move  no  faster  than  before;  for 
it  is  plain  that  if  it  should  move  faster  it  would  have 
increased  centrifugal  force,  and  go  off  into  a  greater 
orbit. 

If  astronomers  are  correct  in  this  view,  then  the 
moon  must  in  time  leave  the  earth  entirely.  If  they 
are  correct,  there  was  a  time  when  it  was  so  near  the 
earth  that  its  oceanic  tides  were  reared  mountain  high 
and  made  to  sweep  over  the  continents  twice  in  twenty- 
four  hours.  But  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  this  does  not 
seem,  by  any  means,  to  be  the  declaration  of  the  geo- 
logic record.  The  learned  Dr.  Newberry  has  shown 
how  erroneous  this  conclusion  is,  by  a  thorough  and 
complete  survey  of  the  geologic  past. 

What  cause,  then,  must  we  assign  for  the  moon's  re- 
cession ?  I  cannot  call  it  "  retardation."  It  can  recede 
only  by  a  decrease  of  attraction  from  within;  for  an 
outward  attraction  would  only  cause  a  local  perturbation 
susceptible  of  self-correction.  A  comet  might  cross 
its  path,  and  for  a  moment  exert  itself  to  check,  or  in- 
crease its  motion,  but  these  ephemeral  visitors  are  harm- 
less as  a  puff  of  wind,  and  if  they  should  check  the 
moon's  velocity,  it  would  decline,  not  recede;  and  if 
they  should  increase  its  motion,  it  would  recede,  with- 
out showing  retardation.  Where,  then,  can  we  find  a 
competent  cause  for  the  recession  of  our  satellite?  If 
it  be  not  in  the  fall  of  the  earth's  annular  system, 
then,  I  presume,  it  can  never  be  found;  and  concerning 
this  problem,  the  universe  will  be  as  voiceless  as  death. 
The  conclusion  then  is  simply  overwhelming  that  the 
earth  once  had  an  annular  system.  Let  us  now  give 
our  attention  to  this. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  GEOLOGIC  RECORD  EXAMINED. 

Having  shown  that  the  prevailing  idea  maintained 
by  geologists  in  all  their  reckoning  and  conclusions, — 
i.e.,  the  idea  that  the  ocean  of  water  now  on  the  earth 
fell  in  its  entirety  before  the  aqueous  crust  was  formed, 
is  necessarily  erroneous;  in  short,  having  established 
the  annular  theory  upon  a  foundation  peculiarly 
strong,  it  certainly  demands  a  respectful  consideration 
at  the  hands  of  thinking  men,  even  if  no  further  proof 
existed. 

To  go  over  the  geologic  record  regularly,  and  point 
out  all  the  important  features,  directing  to  the  order 
and  condition  of  things  here  hypothecated,  would  fill  a 
large  volume  of  itself.  I  will,  therefore,  take  up  some 
of  the  most  important  ones, — those  also  most  familiar 
to  and  most  likely  to  be  comprehended  by  the  ordinary 
reader. 

I  have  made  the  claim  that  the  earth's  annular  sys- 
tem was  necessarily  a  complex  one.  If  the  igneous 
earth  had  been  hot  enough  to  vaporize  and  suspend 
water  only,  then  it  is  plain  that  the  great  primeval  at- 
mosphere would  have  contained  those  vapors  only.  But 
those  vapors  themselves  must  have  contained  dissolved 
silex  and  quartz,  from  the  fact  that  hot  water  and  hot 
vapors  will  dissolve  it.  But  as  we  well  know  the  heat 
of  the  primitive  earth  was  immensely  greater.  Then 
it  is  certain  that  its  atmosphere  must  have  contained 
whatever  else  was  vaporized  and  suspended  therein ;  and 
thus  under  law,  when  the  atmosphere  became  cool,  it 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  63 

deposited  upon  the  earth  what  it  contained  in  the  heated 
condition.  So  that  when  I  advance  the  claim  that 
much  of  the  sedimentary  beds  built  upon  the  lauren- 
tian  and  older  rocks  were  simply  precipitates  from  the 
annular  system,  all  must  see  that  it  simply  is  impossible 
that  such  should  not  be  the  case.  So  surely  as  hot 
vapors  can  contain  more  mineral  matter  than  cold,  so 
surely  did  the  cooled  vapors  of  the  primeval  atmosphere 
deposit  vast  quantities  of  mineral  matter  on  the  earth 
when  they  fell  to  its  surface. 

Now  all  the  fusible  and  vaporizable  minerals  in  the 
earth's  crust  must  have  existed  to  some  extent  in  the 
upper  vapors ;  just  as  all  the  minerals  and  metals  in  the 
sun  must  be  represented  in  the  heated  vapors  around 
it.  And  every  other  hot  and  burning  world  must  ex- 
hibit the  same  thing.  Let  any  man  reflect,  but  for  a 
moment,  and  he  must  admit  that  the  present  state  of 
physical  science  demands  an  unqualified  assent  to  thia 
claim. 

There  were  calcium  and  oxygen  and  carbon  in  the 
primitive  atmosphere.  Then  there  was  carbonate  of 
lime;  and  these  elements  existing  in  measureless 
abundance,  necessitates  a  vast  amount  of  the  carbonate 
in  the  system.  There  were  iron  and  sulphur.  Con- 
sequently these  also  existed  in  the  upper  ocean,  as  me- 
tallic and  mineral  salts,  and  it  simply  seems  impossible 
to  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  annular  system  was 
a  vast  ocean  of  homogeneous  and  heterogeneous  matter. 
By  a  more  laborious  and  critical  examination  this 
conclusion  would  assume  the  phase  of  a  positive  dem- 
onstration, but  I  need  not  burden  the  reader  with  it 
now.  A  certain  degree  of  heat  in  the  burning  earth 
kept  the  aqueous  vapors  suspended  on  high;  a  greater 


64  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

degree  of  heat  sent  up,  in  their  order  of  fusibility,  the 
minerals  and  metals  of  the  earth,  as  they  bubbled  up 
as  vapor  from  a  boiling  crucible.  For  the  present,  ad- 
mit this  conclusion,  and  as  we  proceed  the  necessity  of 
it  will  be  apparent. 

How  would  this  vaporized  and  suspended  matter 
arrange  itself,  as  the  earth  cooled  down  and  the  mass 
contracted?  Obviously  the  heaviest  and  densest  mat- 
ter— the  heaviest  minerals  and  metals — would  locate 
more  largely  in  the  innermost  part  of  the  system,  or 
nearest  the  earth.  Doubtless  all  kinds  of  matter,  even 
metals  to  some  extent,  must  have  remained  dissemi- 
nated throughout  the  system;  but  bulk  for  bulk,  the 
inner  part  must  have  been  the  heaviest,  because  laden 
with  the  more  refractory  metals,  etc.  For  instance,  the 
innermost  ring  must  have  contained  more  iron  than 
any  other  ring  of  the  same  bulk,  while  at  the  same  time 
iron  particles  of  a  different  state  of  purity,  because  of 
certain  combination,  and  consequent  of  varying  gravity, 
must  have  existed  in  all  the  rings,  except,  perhaps,  the 
outermost  one,  which  must  have  been  nearly  free  from 
metals,  but  yet  must  have  contained  distilled  carbon 
particles  of  the  lightest  form  as  soot  sent  up  from  the 
smoking  earth.  Hence  when  I  make  the  claim  that 
the  deposited  minerals  and  metals  in  the  earth's  crust 
follow  an  order  of  arrangement  which  was  chiefly  de- 
termined by  annular  arrangement  in  the  nebulous 
atmosphere,  the  reader  must  see  what  kind  of  order  it 
must  be ! 

We  will  suppose  that  the  innermost  ring  of  aqueous 
vapors  and  their  associated  matter,  comprising  all  mat- 
ter within  the  limits  of  20,000  miles,  fell  after  the 
earth  cooled  down.  But  if  it  fell,  it  fell  because  it  had 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  65 

not  sufficient  revolving  momentum  to  keep  it  above; 
while  all  matter  still  farther  from  the  earth  had  more 
momentum  and  must  have  remained  longer  in  the  an- 
nular form.  But  this  innermost  ring,  when  it  reached 
the  earth,  and  mingled  with  the  terrestrial  seas,  pro- 
duced an  augmentation  of  the  oceans  already  thereon, 
and  the  iron  and  other  heavy  metal  contained  therein, 
must  have  formed  beds  at  the  bottom  of  the  seas,  as  an 
actual  precipitate  or  sediment,  and  consequently  much 
of  the  earliest  sedimentary  rocks  must,  if  our  theory 
be  true,  contain  the  heaviest  minerals  and  metals  of 
the  crust,  and  also  in  the  purest  form !  Is  it  necessary 
for  me  to  bring  forth  evidence  to  prove  that  this  is  the 
actual  state  of  affairs  ?  Every  geologist  knows  full  well 
that  this  is  the  case.  He  knows  that  the  archsean  beds 
— the  oldest  formed  that  have  met  the  gaze  of  science 
— are  above  all  others,  eminently  metalliferous;  and 
that  in  those  beds  the  metals  are  in  the  purest  state! 
Why  ?  Iron  Mountain  and  Pilot's  Knob,  the  grandest 
accumulations  of  iron  upon  any  continent,  are  beds  of 
nearly  pure  iron,  planted  amid  laurentian  piles.  In 
this  foundation  lie  the  heaviest  masses  of  lead  and 
galena  ore.  The  copper,  iron  and  other  great  deposits 
of  Lake  Superior  and  Canada  are  in  the  same  old  beds. 
In  short,  wherever  these  old  beds  are  found  there  you 
will  also  find  the  metallic  beds.  And,  moreover,  they 
are  aqueous,  or  sedimentary  beds !  Dana  says,  "  These 
rocks  are  universal."  They  are  the  metallic  sills  of  the 
earth.  They  form  a  mighty  casement,  or  metal  band 
around  the  world.  Can  this  fact  be  philosophically 
explained  without  the  aid  of  the  annular  theory? 
This  iron  and  this  copper  and  silver  and  gold,  etc.,  were 
distilled  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  the  primitive  earth,  and 


66  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

sent  up  amid  the  aqueous  vapors  on  high.  What  else 
could  have  planted  them  in  strata  of  aqueous  beds! 
What  else  could  have  made  them  so  nearly  pure  ?  What 
else  could  have  made  metallic  beds  in  the  outside  of 
the  earth  ?  Let  him  answer  who  can. 

Since  we  have  found  amid  the  old  sedimentary  beds 
the  very  products  of  primitive  distillation  which  our 
theory  demands,  and  found,  also,  in  the  very  condition 
it  requires,  and  since  we  can  find  no  other  source  at 
all  competent,  we  are  simply  forced  to  conclude  that 
the  first  ocean  that  fell  to  the  earth  must  have  been 
strongly  impregnated  with  iron  and  other  heavy  metals. 
They  are  precipitates  from  water.  But  how  was  water 
impregnated  with  them  except  through  the  aid  of  in- 
veterate heat  and  the  annular  system?  The  present 
distillation  of  iron  by  the  aid  of  vegetation  proves  only 
one  thing,  viz:  that  if  such  a  puny  combustion  can 
dispel  it,  the  primitive  fires  of  the  earth  must  have 
done  immensely  more.  The  processes  are  the  same, 
differing  only  in  degree — the  work  of  combustion,  one 
puny  and  almost  powerless,  the  other  stupendous  and 
titanic. 

Thus  we  may  look  back  through  the  vistas  of  time  to 
the  primitive  and  immeasurable  age  of  change,  when 
the  first  ocean  rolled  its  mineral-laden  waves  around 
the  earth.  In  course  of  time  it  deposited  its  load  upon 
the  earth.  It  was  a  casement  of  immense  thickness, 
requiring  an  immensity  of  waters,  much  of  which  we 
must  conclude  was  absorbed  into  the  rocky  frame  of 
the  earth  as  its  fires  retired  within. 

It  is  now  apparent  that  just  as  we  enter  on  the 
threshold  of  this  investigation  we  must  meet  with  the 
very  features  our  theory  requires;  but  there  is  much 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  (57 

more  in  this  geological  horizon.  In  the  northern  hem- 
isphere the  archsean  beds  are  heaviest  toward  the  north. 
Now  if  they  were  thickest  and  heaviest  near  the  equa- 
tor, the  annular  theory  would  fail  to  explain  it;  but 
a  moment's  reflection  must  show  that  it  does  explain 
its  northern  development,  as  no  other  theory  can. 

Immediately  upon  the  decline  of  an  equatorial  ring 
into  the  lofty  region  of  the  attenuated  air,  it  is  at  once 
converted  into  a  belt,  and  it  gravitates  toward  the 
poles,  the  points  where  gravity  is  strongest  and  centri- 
fugal tendency  zero.  Hence  it  must  follow  that  but  a 
small  part  of  the  annular  system  fell  in  the  equatorial 
world,  but  more  largely  in  the  temperate  and  frigid 
zones.  Now  the  geological  world  well  knows  that  the 
archaean  beds  are  conspicuously  heavier  in  northern 
lands;  and  another  condition  necessitated  by  our  theory 
is  found,  just  as  we  want  to  find  it.  It  is  this  kind  of 
evidence  that  will  in  the  end  establish  my  claim  upon 
a  rock  that  nothing  can  shake.  It  is  plainly  evident 
that  if  all  the  primeval  vapors  fell  in  archaean  time,  as 
geologists  claim,  then  all  the  matter  that  impregnated 
them  must  have  been  deposited  in  a  heterogeneous 
mass,  and  not  in  distinct  beds  as  we  find  them.  There 
simply  could  not  be  those  grand  and  stupendous  beds  so 
characteristically  different  from  all  subsequently 
formed  strata  if  the  conditions  were  then  as  in  subse- 
quent times;  and  philosophic  geology  demands  the  very 
conditions  I  have  pointed  out,  in  order  to  account  for 
the  relationship  of  beds  formed  in  different  ages. 

But  now,  in  order  that  the  common  reader  may  be 
able  to  understand  the  points  here  made,  let  us  admit 
all  the  upper  vapors  to  have  descended  before  the  be- 
ginning of  paleozoic  times,  and  therefore  from  one 


68  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

vast  and  boundless  expanse  of  waters  a  mighty  bed 
of  precipitated  materials  fell  and  formed  the  azoic 
beds.  This  is  plain  enough.  And  then  all  subsequently 
formed  beds  were  torn  away  from  these  earliest  beds, 
and  placed  elsewhere.  This  is  also  plain,  and  is  every- 
where admitted  by  geologists.  It  is  a  conclusion  forced 
upon  us,  as  an  inevitable  result  of  the  above  assump- 
tion. Then  the  silurian  beds  came  from  the  pre- 
existing beds.  But  is  there  a  geologist  who,  after  hav- 
ing examined  the  silurian  formations  of  the  world  at 
large,  and  the  archasan  beds  wherever  exposed,  would 
say  the  former  are  the  debris  of  the  latter,  unless  forced 
to  such  a  conclusion  by  his  fatal  assumption  ?  By  what 
natural,  or  even  miraculous  process  could  the  azoic 
strata  give  rise  to  such  a  casement  of  silicious  beds,  as 
is  well  known,  forms  the  base  of  the  silurian  in  almost 
all  lands?  By  what  natural  process  was  crystallized 
silica  torn  from  among  the  carbonates  of  lime  and  dolo- 
mites and  metallic  strata,  and  deposited  around  the 
earth  without  depositing  the  lime,  metals  and  other 
minerals  in  the  same  beds  ?  Now,  if  the  Potsdam  sand- 
stone, and  its  equivalents  in  other  lands,  were  formed 
from  the  ruins  of  other  beds,  the  ruins  don't  show  it. 
But  we  will  let  this  matter  drop.  Let  these  sub-silurian 
beds  be  the  ruins  of  pre-existing  beds,  placed  as  a 
mighty  covering  around  them,  thus  sealing  them  away 
from  the  ocean's  devouring  waves.  But  now  with  this 
covering,  how  did  the  silurian  waters  get  their  lime? 
Did  the  same  waters  that  before  robbed  the  archaean 
piles  of  their  silica,  and  disdained  to  touch  their  lime, 
now  after  those  piles  were  covered  up,  begin  to  rob 
them  of  their  lime  and  refuse  to  touch  the  silica? 
They  either  did  this  or  they  robbed  the  silicious  beds 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  69 

at  the  base  of  the  silurian  of  what  they  never  had, 
i.e.,  the  stupendous  fund  of  silurian  lime.  This  matter 
will  not  be  rendered  a  particle  more  philosophic  by  ad- 
mitting that  the  great  silurian  beds  were  derived  from 
terranes  now  buried  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  For  it  is 
scarcely  possible  that  continents  once  the  highest 
should  sink  and  become  the  lowest.  But  we  will  let 
this  subject  rest  too.  Let  it  be  admitted  that  the  silu- 
rian waters  did  obtain  their  lime  somehow  from  the 
archsean  beds.  Now  let  us  see  how  this  occurred. 

The  lime  in  the  archsean  strata  is  more  largely  mag- 
nesia than  otherwise,  and  therefore  the  first  silurian 
lime  must  also  be  magnesian!  But  it  is  not!  What 
are  we  to  do  ?  The  lime  beds  nearest  the  basic  beds  of 
the  silurian,  at  least  on  the  American  continent,  are 
almost  pure  carbonate  of  lime.  How  did  the  silurian 
waters  work  through  its  silicious  fundamental  beds  to 
the  dolomites  or  magnesian  lime,  and  then  taking  them 
up  deposit  them  as  carbonate  of  lime  \  Now,  geologists 
very  well  know  that  this  is  very  wrong.  But  the  diffi- 
culty is  immeasurably  increased  when  we  find  that  after 
thousands  of  feet  of  lower  silurian  beds  were  laid  down, 
and  among  them  the  heavy  carbonates,  I  say  after- 
wards, high  up  in  the  series,  we  do  find  an  abundance 
of  limestones  so  highly  magnesian  in  character  as  to  be 
denominated  dolomites.  These  facts  are  too  plain  to 
be  buried.  They  stand  as  mountains  across  our  way. 
The  facts  are  simply  these,  and  no  man  will  deny  them : 
if  it  were  possible  for  the  silurian  beds  to  be  the  ruins 
of  archjcan  terranes,  they  are  not  laid  down  in  the  order 
demanded  by  law !  The  carbonates  where  the  dolomites 
ought  to  be,  and  vice  versa.  How  did  the  upper  lime 
beds  or  dolomites  get  where  they  are?  If  they  were 


70  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

originally  built  up  among  the  archsean,  and  covered 
up  with  thousands  of  feet  of  carbonates  and  silicious 
beds,  how  did  they  ever  get  out?  And  why  did  they 
not  get  out  when  they  might  have  done  so — i.e.,  before 
other  beds  locked  them  down  forever  ? 

Here,  again,  the  annular  theory  gives  a  felicitous 
explanation.  The  waters  from  which  the  silicious  beds 
were  deposited  contained  this  silicious  matter  as  a  min- 
eral distillation,  before  they  fell  to  the  earth;  and  the 
waters  from  which  the  carbonate  of  lime  was  deposited 
contained  that  lime  when  they  were  on  high.  The 
ocean  from  which  it  was  precipitated  was  strongly  im- 
pregnated with  carbonate  of  lime,  and  must  have  ob- 
tained that  lime  when  the  vapors  were  hot.  But  the 
ocean  which  built  up  the  magnesian  lime-beds  of  the 
silurian  was  a  different  ocean,  and  made  so  by  addi- 
tional waters  from  the  annular  system.  This  is  abund- 
antly attested  by  the  extermination  of  species,  which  al- 
ways shows  a  new  environment. 

When  every  intelligent  man  must  know  that  if  the 
earth  was  in  an  igneous  condition,  the  matter  composing 
these  beds,  or  at  least  such  matter,  must  have  been  ex- 
pelled from  the  telluric  furnace,  and  that  such  matter 
— matter  that  had  never  been  formed  into  continental 
beds — must  have  settled  somewhere  in  the  ancient 
ocean,  it  is  the  merest  folly  to  claim  that  all  the  mat- 
ter of  the  aqueous  beds  was  derived  from  pre-existing 
beds  by  aqueous  denudation. 

There  was,  no  doubt,  in  all  ages  denudation  and 
transfer  of  native  material  in  the  formation  of  beds, 
but  we  must  not  forget  that  during  all  these  ages  a  fall 
and  precipitation  of  exotic  matter — tellurio-cosmic  mat- 
ter— aided  in  the  work !  It  is  easy  to  understand  that 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  71 

if  the  silurian  dolomites  had  been  placed  next  to  the 
dolomitic  beds  of  the  laurentian,  the  annular  theory 
could  have  had  no  support,  and  would  be  easily  over- 
thrown by  the  fact.  But  since  they  are  placed  just 
where  philosophic  geology  demands,  and  yet  where  the 
current  theory  utterly  fails  to  explain,  geologists  must 
yield  their  claim. 

We  have  here,  then,  the  strongest  circumstantial 
evidence  that  all  through  these  early  ages,  the  upper 
vapors  were  falling  to  the  earth  and  depositing  their 
contained  matter  upon  it.  Thus  independently  of  our 
mathematical  demonstration  we  so  far  see  that  the 
geological  history,  in  its  very  dawn,  declares  the  essen- 
tial facts  of  the  annular  theory. 

Having  then,  as  I  claim,  laid  the  foundation  of  this 
view,  in  such  a  way  that  no  one  will  attempt  to  attack 
it,  who  has  a  particle  of  regard  for  law,  we  will  move 
across  the  mighty  abyss  of  time  that  rolls  its  dark  flood 
between  the  azoic  and  the  present,  and  lay  another 
foundation  on  this  side  the  stream,  and  then  we  will 
erect  the  super-structure  intended  to  span  the  mighty 
void. 

It  is  plain,  that  if  after  having  shown  that  the  earth 
had  an  annular  system  in  the  very  dawn  of  the  ages, 
I  should  also  show  that  after  man  came  upon  the  earth, 
some  remnants  of  that  system  still  remained  on  high, 
then  the  whole  geologic  world  was  built  up  largely 
under  its  influence;  that  is,  that  the  earth  possessed 
rings  and  belts  throughout  all  the  geologic  ages. 

We  will  briefly  sum  up  the  conclusions  hitherto 
deduced  from  the  firmly  established  and  generally  ad- 
mitted fact,  that  the  world  once  passed  through  the 
ordeal  of  fire,  or  igneous  fusion. 


72  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

1st.  All  terrestrial  waters  were  held  in  suspension 
during  that  age  of  inveterate  heat,  far  removed  from 
the  surface  of  the  boiling,  naming  and  smoking  mass  of 
the  earth. 

2d.  This  suspended  ocean  of  vapors,  rotated  as  a 
part  and  parcel  of  the  earth — a  primeval  atmosphere 
of  great  complexity  of  materials — in  the  same  time 
that  the  earth  then  rotated,  just  as  our  present  atmos- 
phere now  does. 

3d.  This  suspended  matter  in  the  course  of  time 
gathered  in  the  earth's  equatorial  heavens,  and  upon 
condensing  necessarily  contracted  and  segregated  into 
rings,  which  revolved  independently  about  the  earth, 
thus  causing  a  great  lapse  of  time  between  the  descent 
of  the  first,  or  primitive,  ocean  of  water  nearest  the 
earth,  and  those  waters  most  remote  in  the  annular 
system. 

4th.  The  waters  remaining  on  high,  after  the  in- 
terior waters  or  first  ocean  fell  to  the  earth,  fell  in  a 
succession  of  stupendous  cataclysms,  separated  by  un- 
known periods  of  time. 

5th.  The  first  ocean  was  necessarily  impregnated 
with  mineral  and  metallic  salts,  or  filled  with  mineral 
and  metallic  particles  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  any 
other  section  or  division  of  waters  or  exterior  vapors, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  in  the  system  the  heaviest 
vapors  would  settle  lowest  or  nearest  the  earth  as  it 
cooled  down. 

6th.  All  such  changes  required  a  great  length  of 
time,  and  a  progressive  motion  of  declining  matter  from 
the  equator,  polar-wise;  also  the  bands  and  belts  of  the 
earth's  annular  system  necessarily  presented  the  same 
general  aspect  that  Jupiter's  and  Saturn's  do  to-day. 


The  Geologic  Record  Examined.  73 

7th.  A  succession  of  concentric  rings  necessarily 
requires  a  vast  lapse  of  time  between  the  declension 
of  one  ring  of  vapors  into  the  outskirts  of  the  atmos- 
phere, and  the  fall  of  the  next  succeeding  one;  so  that 
each  fall,  or  each  ring,  after  it  reached  the  attenuated 
atmosphere,  continued  to  revolve  as  a  belt  about  the 
earth  with  an  ever-decreasing  velocity  as  it  spread 
toward  the  poles  and  over-canopied  the  earth. 

8th.  The  smoke  or  unconsumed  carbon  that  arose 
from  the  burning  world  commingled  with  the  upper 
vapors,  darkened  them,  and  formed  inevitably,  dark 
bands  or  belts  among  bright  vaporous  ones,  as  we  now 
see  on  some  other  planets. 

9th.  After  a  ring  of  vapors  had  fallen  into  the  air, 
it  is  likely  that  it  may  have  over-canopied  the  globe 
and  finally  descended  to  the  earth,  leaving  the  atmos- 
phere clear,  before  another  ring  reached  the  atmos- 
phere in  its  persistent  decline. 

10th.  The  apparent  retardation  of  the  moon  is  but  a 
gradual  recession  of  our  satellite,  caused  by  diminished 
attraction  as  the  annular  system  declined,  and  the 
necessary  check  put  upon  the  revolving  rings  neces- 
sarily caused  them  to  sink  and  finally  fall  to  the  earth, 
if  no  other  cause  of  their  fall  existed;  and  further,  this 
retardation  proves  the  former  existence  of  an  annular 
system  about  the  earth. 

llth.  The  archsean  metalliferous  deposits  are  so 
located  as  to  be  inexplicable  by  the  old  theory  of  aque- 
ous denudation,  but  beautifully  in  accord  with  the  new. 

12th.  The  silurian  beds,  and  particularly  the  order 
of  their  occurrence  in  the  earth,  utterly  refute  the  idea 
that  they  were  derived  from  pre-existing  beds.  Hence 
it  is  evident  that  during  the  silurian  age  there  was  an 


.74  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

annular  system  about  the  earth.  In  other  words,  it 
is  evident  that  all  the  primeval  waters  did  not  fall  be- 
fore the  dawn  of  life  on  the  globe. 

I  here  present  a  chart  of  the  igneous  earth  and  its 
surroundings,  immediately  after  the  heaviest  mineral 
and  metallic  vapors — which  gathered  more  largely  near- 
est the  earth  in  the  system — had  fallen,  leaving  a  space 
of  about  20,000  miles  between  the  rings  and  the  surface 
of  the  planet.  (This  vacant  space,  marked  as  1,  we  can 
scarcely  make  hypothetic,  as  it  must  seem  to  be  a  neces- 
sity in  annular  formation.)  The  light  parts  of  the 
system  represent  aqueous  vapors,  and  the  dark  rings 
vapors  darkened  by  the  presence  of  unconsumed  car- 
bon, that  necessarily  arose  from  the  burning  sphere  as 
smoke.  Ring  2  represents  the  heaviest  forms  of  car- 
bon, as  graphite,  etc.,  which,  according  to  law,  gathered 
more  largely  among  the  innermost  vapors  than  else- 
where. King  3,  the  silurian  vapors  heavily  charged 
with  calcareous  and  silicious  matter,  and  from  which 
the  silurian  beds  were  almost  wholly  derived  during  a 
vast  lapse  of  time.  No.  4,  vapors  of  the  devonian,  car- 
boniferous and  permean  seas,  heavily  charged  with  car- 
bon, hydro-carbons,  etc.  No.  5,  tertiary  and  cretaceous 
vapors,  containing  the  lighter  forms  of  calcareous  and 
carbonaceous  matter.  No.  6,  the  vapors  of  the  quarter- 
nary,  containing  the  lightest  form  of  carbon,  now 
mixed  with  the  glacial  drift  of  the  world  and  impris- 
oned in  polar  ice.  No.  7  represents  the  aqueous  vapors 
of  the  Edenic  period,  and  the  Noachian  deluge. 

Imagine  the  innermost  section  of  ring  1  to  decline 
from  the  system  into  the  atmosphere  and  gradually 
spread  over  the  terrestrial  heavens,  in  its  effort  to  reach 
the  poles,  remembering  that  all  such  movements  con- 


Fig.  3.     EARTH  AND  ITS  ANNULAR  SYSTEM. 

Fig.  3  represents  a  full-face  view  of  the  earth  and  its  annular  system.  Here  a  is 
the  earth,  6  the  earth's  atmosphere,  c  the  heavy  carbons  and  their  accompanying 
mineral  sublimations,  d  the  lighter  carbons  and  hydro-carbons,  e  glacial  snows  and 
their  accompaniments,/ outer  vapors,  principally  aqueous  and  likely  in  a  frozen 
state.  From  this  outermost  ring  came  the  polar  snows  that  chilled  the  Eden  earth, 
and  afterwards  caused  the  deluges  of  Noah  and  Deucalion,  and  still  later  caused 
those  sporadic  incursions  of  canopy  scenes  so  vividly  shining  to-day  from  all  ancient 
scriptures,  sacred  and  profane.  In  these  outermost  rings  avast  quantity  of  gold 
vapors,  sent  as  fire  mist  to  the  skies,  condensed  and  forming  into  nuggets,  flakes, 
flour-gold,  and  the  like,  fell  in  polar  lands  with  the  tnowt  at  they  fell  and  must  to-day 
be  found  in  and  on  the  very  glacier*  that  lock  down  that  once  semi-tropic  region  in 
the  grasp  of  eternal  winter.* 

The  inter-annular  spaces  of  this  figure  represent  similar  features  in  the  ring  system 
•f  the  planet  Saturn.  These  are  probably  filled  with  invisible  air,— an  annular 
atmosphere. 

*  I  have  more  fully  elaborated  the  annular  origin  of  polar  gold  in  my  "Alauka, 
Land  of  the  Nugget.  Why  ?  "  and  also  in  "  Ophir'e  Golden  Wedw." 


76  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

sume  a  vast  length  of  time,  and  we  may  be  able  to  con- 
ceive how  very  often  the  earth  must  have  been  over- 
canopied  as  with  a  greenhouse  roof,  and  how  very  fre- 
quently during  the  geological  ages  the  earth  became 
a  greenhouse  world,  with  intervening  periods  of  flood 
and  desolation.  How  very  frequently  the  oceanic 
waters  were  changed  in  constitution,  and  their  volume 
and  depth  increased.  How  very  much  the  sedi- 
mentary beds  were  increased  in  amount  by  catastrophic 
additions.  But  here  again  let  me  remind  the  reader 
that  I  do  not  claim  that  these  additions  of  exotic  matter 
built  the  aqueous  strata,  but  that  they  greatly  aided 
in  the  work  of  denudation  and  transportation  of  mat- 
ter, and  that  hence  the  time  of  building  being  greatly 
shortened  the  ages  could  not  have  been  of  so  great 
duration  as  we  have  generally  supposed. 

A  critical  examination  of  the  aqueous  strata  will 
show  that  they  were  planned  according  to  the  order 
here  represented. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   EARTH'S    ANNULAR   SYSTEM   AS    DEMONSTRATED   BY 
HISTORIC   TESTIMONY. 

I  have  intimated  that  the  views  I  have  advanced 
could  not  be  more  strongly  supported  by  the  voice  of 
science  than  they  are  vindicated  by  the  claims  of  his- 
tory. Yet  were  I  to  urge  biblical  evidence  to  the 
front,  because  of  my  conscientious  regard  for  the 
sacred  writings,  it  would  be  assuming  a  greater  authen- 
ticity for  such  testimony  than  many  of  my  readers  are 
willing  to  concede.  Therefore,  in  order  that  it  may  not 
be  said  that  I  place  undue  value  upon  any  evidence 
herein  advanced,  I  will  put  these  writings  for  the  time 
being  on  the  same  level  with  profane  history,  however 
my  inclination  rebels  at  the  thought.  Such  evidence, 
then,  as  I  glean  from  Genesis,  will  in  this  argument  be 
of  the  same  value  as  it  would  be  if  found  in  the  writings 
of  Pliny,  Tacitus  or  Herodotus. 

The  question  now  to  be  considered  is:  Did  any  part 
of  the  annular  matter  continue  to  revolve  about  the 
earth  until  after  man  came  upon  it?  If  I  succeed  in 
showing  that  some  of  those  revolving  vapors  remained 
on  high,  and  were  perceived  by  man,  then  the  question 
will  be  forever  settled,  and  almost  every  physical  and 
metaphysical  science  will  have  to  be  reviewed.  For  it 
will  show  that  every  form  and  phase  of  geologic  life  has 
so  depended  thereon  as  to  be  modified  thereby.  It  will 
show  that  the  earth's  ring-system,  anchored  in  the  ter- 
restrial heavens,  when  this  planet  was  in  its  infancy, 
continued  to  act  the  part  of  a  mighty  world-carver 


78  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

throughout  all  geologic  time,  and  lent  its  titan  energies 
in  building  the  wondrous  piles  of  aqueous  beds — the 
debris  of  continents  and  ruin  of  rings.  If  the  last  rem- 
nants of  the  system  came  down  upon  the  earth  in  mod- 
ern times,  man  would  certainly  have  conveyed  the  in- 
telligence down  to  the  remotest  age,  by  history  and  tra- 
dition, and  the  account,  if  true,  would  harmonize  with 
law. 

Then  let  us  suppose  that  to-day  a  fund  of  annular 
matter  were  revolving  about  the  earth.  In  order  to 
remain  in  the  firmament  it  would  have  to  revolve  more 
rapidly  than  the  earth  rotates  upon  its  axis,  and  if  it 
were  in  the  outskirts  of  our  atmosphere  the  resistance 
of  the  latter  would  drag  it  into  belts,  and  as  I  have  be- 
fore shown,  it  would  begin  an  exceedingly  slow  polar- 
wise  motion,  in  its  efforts  to  reach  the  earth.  It  would 
thus  in  time  over-canopy  the  earth,  forming  a  universal 
aqueous  roof,  becoming  a  clearly  defined  and  well- 
known  appendage. 

Man  could  not  fail  to  know  the  nature  of  that  ap- 
pendage, and  seeing  the  waters  already  on  the  earth, 
and  seeing  other  waters  on  high,  as  the  source  of  all 
waters,  he  would  naturally  call  the  two  waters  by  dif- 
ferent names — waters  here,  on  earth,  and  waters  yon- 
der, in  the  sky;  or,  waters  above  and  waters  below. 

Is  it  not  a  little  remarkable  that  almost  the  first  an- 
nouncement made  by  the  Hebrew  historian  is  a  positive 
declaration  that  "  God  made  the  firmament,"  or  aerial 
expanse,  "  and  divided  the  waters  which  were  under  the 
firmament  from  the  waters  which  were  above  the  firma- 
ment. And  it  was  so  ?  "  (Gen  1 :  7.)  We  are  simply 
given  to  understand  that  the  writer  knew  there  were 
two  bodies  of  water — one  above  the  earth  and  in  the 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  79 

sky,  and  the  other  under  the  sky  or  firmament,  or  on 
the  earth.  No  amount  of  torturing  can  make  this  pass- 
age mean  anything  else  than  the  simple  fact  that  a 
fund  of  waters  revolved  about  the  earth.  The  merest 
child  knows  that  no  material  substance,  vaporous  or 
meteoric,  could  remain  in  the  terrestrial  firmament  for 
one  moment,  unless  it  revolved  about  the  earth! 
Science  settles  this  question  at  once  and  forever !  so  that 
our  historian,  when  he  made  the  declaration  that  the 
firmament,  or  Hebrew  atmosphere,  became  an  expanse 
between  two  bodies  of  water,  one  of  which  was  on  high, 
and  the  other  on  the  earth,  could  not  have  predicated 
the  fundamental  truth  of  the  annular  theory  in  more 
positive  terms.  Had  he  said,  "  We  now  behold  a  great 
deep,  or  fund  of  aqueous  matter  moving  rapidly  around 
the  earth,"  he  would  have  said  nothing  more  than  he 
did.  The  fact  that  the  waters  were  above  the  firma- 
ment demands  most  positively  that  they  should  move 
rapidly  around  the  earth,  with  a  motion  of  their  own. 

How  wonderful  the  thought  that  the  store  of  sacred 
history  should  be  opened  by  the  grand  conception  of  a 
revolving  deep !  Let  the  doubter  for  a  moment  pause 
upon  this  threshold  of  a  new  world,  and  ask:  Why  is 
this  announcement  the  very  thing  demanded  by  law? 
He  has  been  schooled  in  the  belief  that  the  earth  was 
once  a  burning  world.  Then  he  sees  one  of  the  grand 
results  of  that  condition;  and  he  must  inevitably  see 
that  here  on  the  first  page  of  interdiluvian  history  is 
shadowed  the  very  fact  science  has  led  him  to  believe; 
for,  if  the  earth  ever  passed  through  the  ordeal  of  fire, 
there  was  a  time  when  there  were  waters  above  the 
earth,  and  waters  on  the  earth.  If  the  historian  had 
here  followed  the  line  of  thought  that  an  impostor  in 


80  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

this  twentieth  century  of  the  Christian  era  would  do 
he  would  have  said:  In  primitive  times,  directly  after 
the  earth  cooled  down,  all  the  aqueous  vapors  de- 
scended to  the  earth,  and  from  that  day  to  this  no 
waters  have  been  added  to  the  ocean's  volume.  Over 
this  the  intelligent  reader  would  stand  confounded  in 
his  attempts  to  harmonize  the  different  statements.  As 
we  proceed  it  must  be  plainly  seen  that  the  penman 
would  have  inextricably  involved  himself  in  the  plain- 
est stultification.  For  the  sun  would  have  been  made 
visible  in  the  same  primitive  age,  and  must  have  ren- 
dered contradictory  and  false  nearly  every  subsequent 
statement,  as  will  be  seen.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
plain,  simple  announcement  of  upper  waters  is  in  har- 
mony with  law,  and  in  harmony  with  the  entire  thread 
of  the  narrative  from  beginning  to  end.  Let  us  see. 

Thus  we  begin  our  investigation  of  Genesis,  with  the 
announcement,  remarkable  for  strength  and  simplicity, 
that  some  portions  of  the  terrestrial  waters  did  remain 
on  high,  until  they  were  recognized  as  such  by  man. 
We  see  that  announcement  in  utter  harmony  with 
philosophic  law,  and  all  men  must  then  give  it  the  credit 
of  honesty  and  truthfulness,  though  it  were  the  declara- 
tion of  a  Moor,  or  a  Hottentot. 

As  we  proceed  we  find  truthful  witnesses  clustering 
around  and  supporting  this  great  central  fact.  Right 
here  we  learn  that  "  light "  came  in  and  garnished  the 
heaven  before  the  sun  was  seen.  (Gen.  1 :  3,  4.)  This, 
again,  is  the  demand  of  law.  The  upper  deep  over- 
canopied  the  earth,  hiding  the  sun,  but  revealing  his 
light  by  the  laws  of  universal  diffusion  among  the 
vapors.  Suppose  the  writer  had  said,  the  "  sun  now 
came  into  view."  He  would  then  have  contradicted 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  81 

himself  on  the  first  page  of  history.  For  it  is  plain 
that  no  sun  could  appear  except  as  a  great  display  of 
light  through  the  revolving  deep.  These  two  state- 
ments, then,  are  co-linked  together  as  important  wit- 
nesses to  the  truth  of  annular  formation.  Neither  of 
them  can  be  true  unless  the  earth  then  had  an  upper 
fund  of  waters — a  great  deep  beyond  the  firmament. 
How  does  it  happen  that  this  dove-tailing  of  facts  sup- 
ports the  very  claim  which  could  be  so  easily  refuted  if 
a  single  contradictory  statement  were  made  ? 

What  was  the  name  of  that  expanse  of  waters? 
The  waters  on  the  earth  "  were  called  seas."  (Gen. 
1:  10.)  Then  it  is  evident  that  the  "  deep  "  referred 
to  in  Gen.  1:  2  was  not  the  waters  on  the  earth,  but 
the  waters  overhead.  This  is  also  evident  from  the 
wording  of  the  entire  verse.  The  writer  says  the  earth 
was  void  and  vacant — ruin  and  waste — and  then  turns 
his  attention  to  the  heavens,  and  says,  "  And  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep."  As  all  men  believed 
that  God  dwelt  in  the  sky,  or  had  his  throne  established 
upon  the  upper  side  of  a  solid  floor,  called  heaven,  we 
can  easily  understand  why  the  writer  said:  "  The 
Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  and 
said :  '  Let  there  be  light ! '  That  light  burst  in  from 
the  heavenly  sphere  and  illumined  the  upper  deep.  It 
would  not  at  all  comport  with  man's  idea  of  the  power 
and  nature  of  Deity,  to  suppose  that  his  spirit  moved 
on  the  surface  of  the  "  seas  "  and  said,  "  Let  there  be 
light."  But  if  we  now  take  the  only  philosophic  view, 
viz. :  that  man  knew  there  was  a  great  "  deep  "  on  high, 
and  "  seas  "  on  earth,  and  first  described  the  condition 
of  the  earth,  then  the  condition  of  the  sky,  and  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  Deity,  "  brooding  on  the  vast  abyss," 


82  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

or  deep  of  heaven,  called  in  the  rays  of  the  solar  orb, 
we  see  again  astonishing  harmony.  The  writer  of 
Genesis,  seeing  the  great  deep  above  the  firmament, 
and  knowing,  from  some  source,  that  all  the  waters  on 
the  earth  came  from  that  deep,  tells  us,  first,  the  earth 
was  once  "without  form  and  void";  then  adds  this 
simple  statement  that  "  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep,"  when  he  must  have  referred  to  the  waters 
above,  which  is  a  declaration  in  favor  of  the  revolving 
vapors;  and  when  he  again  states  that  the  "  spirit  of 
God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  Avaters,"  while  he  must 
have  known,  or  believed,  that  the  Deity  moved  and 
lived  on  high,  is  another  statement,  simple  and  plain, 
that  a  fund  of  waters  revolved  about  the  earth.  Thus 
we  have  two  simple  announcements  in  the  second  verse 
of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  the  earth  had  an 
annular  system  recognized  by  man;  and  again  in  the 
fourth  and  seventh  verses  it  is  twice  declared,  and  more 
positive  and  emphatic.  And  again,  in  verse  nine,  God 
said:  "  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered," 
etc.  Why  is  the  expression  under  used,  unless  it  be  to 
distinguish  the  "  seas  "  from  the  "  deep  "  ?  and  another 
link  connects  this  mysterious  history  in  philosophic  and 
harmonious  accord  with  law.  Five  times  declared,  and 
each  time  by  different  means,  before  half  a  page  is 
written !  It  is  not  a  reiteration  or  tautology,  but  a  sim- 
ple statement  of  five  different  conditions  of  the  sur- 
roundings of  the  ancient  world!  And  each  of  those 
conditions  predicates  an  annular  fund  of  waters.  I  care 
not  whether  the  historian  be  an  impostor  or  servant  of 
the  Most  High,  one  thing  is  plain:  the  very  nature  of 
these  statements  forces  conviction  upon  the  philo- 
sophic mind.  These  links  of  evidence  were  not  penned 


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Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  83 

in  order  that  a  man  in  this  twentieth  century  should 
prove  the  truth  of  a  theory;  and  yet  they  point  with 
such  unerring  certainty  to  this  grand  and  fascinating 
field  of  thought  that  it  seems  as  though  the  penman  had 
himself  reveled  therein.  But  let  us  see  further.  If 
it  be  true  that  man  thus  recognized  the  upper  waters, 
then  he  lived  in  an  environment  consequent  upon  that 
condition,  and  all  the  natural  phenomena  of  the  inter- 
diluvian  world  must  have  had  some  relation  to  the 
same.  If  there  was  a  fund  of  water  or  vapors  above,  it 
must  have  affected  all  conditions  of  life  until  it  fell  to 
the  earth.  The  sun  could  not  be  seen  as  it  now  appears, 
until  the  heavens  were  cleared  of  vapors. 

In  a  subsequent  part  of  this  volume  I  will  prove  that 
the  heavens  became  cleared  at  the  time  of  the  deluge, 
and  therefore  the  sun  did  not  and  could  not  have  been 
seen  clearly  until  after  that  event. 

Now  let  us  examine  a  few  more  links  of  evidence 
gleaned  from  this  fruitful  record.  Gen.  1 :  14  to  19  re- 
veals the  fact  that  the  "  lesser "  and  "  greater " 
"  lights  "  made  their  appearance  in  the  heavens  on  the 
fourth  day  of  creation.  Laying  aside  all  other  consid- 
eration one  thing  stands  out  boldly  to  view — i.e.,  the 
sun,  which  physical  science  declares  had  existed  for 
measureless  ages,  did  not  appear  in  the  terrestrial  sky, 
until  after  the  earth  brought  "  forth  grass  and  the 
herb  yielding  fruit."  Then  it  is  plain  that  some  inter- 
cepting canopy  cut  off  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  But, 
as  before  stated,  no  such  canopy  could  exist  in  such  a 
position  unless  it  had  the  form  and  motion  of  revolving 
rings  or  belts.  Thus  again  the  plain  statement  that  the 
"  lights  "  did  not  appear  until  the  fourth  day  is  a  sim- 
ple declaration  that  during  the  first,  second  and  third 


84  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

days,  at  least,  the  earth  had  an  annular  system !  Sup- 
pose the  narrator  had  said  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  ap- 
peared on  the  first  day.  In  that  case  nothing  could  be 
more  easily  done  than  to  prove  him  an  impostor.  But 
the  statement  that  the  lights  did  not  appear  till  later 
harmonizes  with  law — with  the  previously  made  state- 
ment that  there  were  "  waters  above  the  firmament," 
with  the  demands  of  the  annular  theory — an  upper 
deep. 

But  the  reader  will  notice  that  he  does  not  state  that 
the  sun  and  moon  made  their  appearance  on  the  fourth 
day,  but  simply  "  lights."  The  Hebrew  word  from 
which  the  term  is  derived  does  not  mean  sun,  nor  moon, 
and  evidently  refers  only  to  diffused  light.  The  He- 
brew words  from  which  these  are  derived  are  not  used 
till  after  the  deluge,  when  the  sun  was  known  by  man 
to  be  both  a  "  lighter  "  and  a  "  heater."  The  names, 
then,  sun  and  moon,  not  being  used,  it  is  evident  that 
they  did  not  even,  on  the  fourth  day,  appear  as  they 
now  do,  but  simply  as  "  lighters,"  illuminating  the 
vapors.  "  Let  there  be  lights !  "  Why  did  He  not  say, 
"  sun  and  moon  ?  "  Surely,  because  the  sun  and  moon 
were  not  yet  unveiled. 

But  the  writer  did  use  the  term  "  stars,"  which  in 
almost  all  ages,  according  to  law,  must  have  shone  in 
upon  the  earth  from  the  polar  heavens.  Thus  we  have 
mirrored  one  of  the  essential  features  of  the  annular 
theory:  that  the  vapors  fell  largely  at  the  poles.  Dur- 
ing the  prevalence  of  the  upper  vapors  the  polar  skies 
must  have  been  cleared  again  and  again,  permitting  the 
stars  to  shine  upon  the  earth  from  those  quarters.  Now 
a  little  reflection  must  convince  the  reader  that  the 
scriptural  statement  that  the  "  great  lights  "  and  "  the 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  85 

stars  also  "  appeared  on  the  fourth  day,  conveys  the 
very  idea  our  theory  demands.  If  the  terms  sun  and 
moon  had  been  used  the  statement  would  have  contra- 
dicted the  statement  just  made,  of  upper  waters,  and 
would  in  turn  have  been  contradicted  many  times  in  the 
succeeding  narrative.  But  why  this  harmony — this 
unity  of  evidence  ?  The  fact  that  the  term  stars  is  used 
argues  that  the  term  sun  would  have  been  used  if  that 
luminary  could  have  been  seen. 

Perhaps  the  reader  now  begins  to  understand  why 
the  author  was  so  particular,  in  a  former  chapter,  in 
his  comments  on  the  motions  of  the  belts  of  Jupiter  and 
Saturn — i.e.,  their  polarwise  decline.  Belts  could  not 
revolve  long  in  the  polar  heavens,  and  would  neces- 
sarily fall,  clearing  the  circum-polar  skies  and  admit- 
ting the  stars.  Here  we  see  this  necessary  condition  re- 
ferred to  in  Genesis.  I  can  conceive  of  no  reason  why 
the  name  stars  should  have  been  used  and  the  names  of 
the  two  most  prominent  luminaries  entirely  overlooked 
by  the  historian,  unless  the  stars  were  seen  and  the  sun 
and  moon  were  not  seen;  and  as  this  is  the  very  feature 
our  theory  demands  with  emphasis,  the  question  is  most 
conclusive. 

Thus,  again,  we  have  to  face  the  fact  that  the 
"  waters  above  the  firmament "  had  not  yet  fallen. 
The  fact,  also,  that  no  mention  was  yet  made  of  their 
fall  argues  that  they  yet  remained  on  high.  Thus  every 
step  we  take  leads  to  a  grand  confirmation  of  our  views, 
and  in  turn  substantiates  the  narrator's  account  in  a 
way  most  complete  and  remarkable. 

But  the  most  remarkable  and  conclusive  evidence  is 
yet  to  be  examined.  If  the  waters  above  still  remained 
on  high,  and  prevented  the  sun  from  shining  down  upon 


86  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  earth  as  it  now  does;  if  it  yet  had  appeared  only  as 
a  "  lighter,"  its  heat  must  have  been  diffused  among  the 
upper  vapors,  and  the  earth's  surface  could  not  have 
been  heated  up  by  its  direct  rays,  but  the  whole  earth 
under  the  over-canopying  vapors  must  have  been 
warmed,  and  its  temperature  and  climate  equalized  by 
transmitted  and  diffused  solar  heat;  just  as  a  green- 
house is  warmed  by  sun's  heat  transmitted  through  a 
painted  glass  roof.  Now  this  is  no  vain  or  idle  conclu- 
sion; but  so  surely  as  the  sun's  light  and  heat  were  dif- 
fused among  the  upper  vapors,  at  the  period  alluded  to, 
so  surely  was  the  earth  under  a  greenhouse  covering, 
and  possessed  of  a  climate  and  temperature  harmoniz- 
ing therewith.  The  conditions,  then,  that  must  have 
obtained  in  such  a  world  are  substantially  these,  viz: 

1st.  There  must  have  been  a  greenhouse  tempera- 
ture and  climate  prevailing  over  the  greater  part  of  the 
earth. 

2d.  There  could  not  have  been  storms  and  tempests 
as  we  now  have  on  earth;  for  the  reason  that  all  such 
phenomena  are  caused  by  sun-power — sun-heat  falling 
directly  upon  the  earth's  surface.  Winds  and  storm 
must  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimum;  and  what  is 
more,  rains  must  have  been  infrequent,  if  they  could 
possibly  have  occurred  at  all.  This  certainly  is  Law. 

3d.  The  solar-beam  shorn  of  its  active  power,  it  must 
have  been  an  age  of  rest  to  the  earth.  There  could  not 
have  been  the  alternation  of  seasons  as  there  now  is. 
Winter  and  summer  would  cease  to  alternate,  and  there 
would  be  one  perpetual  seed-time,  and  one  perpetual 
harvest. 

4th.  Man  living  in  this  universal  greenhouse  would 
naturally  harmonize  with  his  environment,  and  during 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  87 

that  day  when  solar  actinism  was  shorn  of  its  strength, 
he  must  have  experienced  remarkable  longevity;  for,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  upon  solar  energy  depends 
every  form  and  phase  of  life  on  earth ! ! 

Now  let  me  call  attention  to  a  few  simple  statements 
in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis.  The  first  we  notice 
is  the  well-known  declaration  that  there  was  a  day — 
an  age  of  rest.  "  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and 
sanctified  it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all 
his  work,"  etc.  (Gen.  2 :  3.)  Can  the  human  mind  see 
any  meaning  at  all  in  this  remarkable  announcement, 
except  through  the  light  of  the  annular  theory?  Did 
God,  the  Creator  of  all  things,  ever  rest  from  His 
labors,  except  those  pertaining  to  the  earth  and  seen  by 
and  familiar  to  man?  Did  the  planets  cease  to  move, 
the  suns  cease  to  burn  ?  Did  the  solar  ray  cease  its  eter- 
nal work  ?  Did  the  clouds  cease  to  move,  the  rain  cease 
to  fall,  the  seasons  cease  to  alternate,  except  as  looked 
upon  by  man  shut  in  from  the  universe  by  a  stupendous 
greenhouse  roof — by  the  waters  above?  All  phe- 
nomena of  nature  were  looked  upon  by  the  infant  race 
as  the  immediate  work  of  Deity.  If  the  sun  could 
not  heat  the  earth's  surface,  then  that  much  of  the 
work  of  Deity  was  suspended  in  the  estimation  of 
man.  Then  clouds  could  not  form,  and  tempests  could 
not  rage,  and  that  much  of  God's  work  ceased  in  the 
eyes  of  the  human  race.  Then  winter  could  not  chill 
the  earth  with  his  icy  breath,  and  the  race  would  see 
another  labor  suspended.  Fountains  and  rivers  and 
streams,  reduced  to  minima,  would  almost  cease 
their  labors.  In  short,  if  this  world  was  ever  enveloped 
by  a  fund  of  vapors  "  above  the  firmament,"  it  was 
characterized  by  a  condition  of  universal  rest!  And 


88  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

this  is  apparently  the  only  possible  manner  in  which 
the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  could  have  rested.  Man 
saw  these  things  reduced  to  this  condition  as  an  abso- 
lute necessity  arising  from  the  presence  of  the  upper 
deep.  And  we  are  again  simply  compelled  to  admit  the 
truth  of  our  theory;  for,  the  God  of  nature — the  God 
of  the  infant  race — could  not  possibly  have  rested  if 
the  earth  had  not  at  that  very  time  a  canopy  of  vapors 
revolving  about  it.  Now  it  can  be  readily  seen  that  if 
our  author  had  said  that  God  never  rested  from  His 
labors,  his  statement,  if  true,  would  have  overthrown 
the  annular  theory  at  once  and  forever.  How  grand 
the  thought,  then,  that  the  very  condition  demanded  by 
it  is  proclaimed  as  immaculate  philosophy,  shaming  the 
mockery  and  scholastic  bigotry  of  the  world !  Beauti- 
ful, indeed,  the  concept  that  the  Great  Creator  presents 
to  the  human  race,  in  its  greenhouse  cradle,  a  Sabbath 
typical  of  that  glorious  rest  prepared  for  the  people  of 
God,  where  the  physical  sun  will  be  again  shut  off,  and 
the  "  Lord  God  and  the  Lamb  "  will  be  the  light  of  the 
spiritual  world. 

But  what  is  most  remarkable  and  overwhelming  is 
the  fact  that  we  scarcely  have  finished  our  contempla- 
tion of  the  physical  Sabbath,  which,  above  all  things, 
necessitates  a  windless,  stormless  and  rainless  age  be- 
fore we  are  told  that  it  was  a  day  when  the  "  Lord  God 
had  not  caused  it  to  rain  upon  the  earth."  (Gen.  2:  5.) 
Such  harmonious  features  must  strike  the  reader  with 
amazement.  Every  one  must  see  that  if  there  ever  was 
an  age  in  which  the  earth  was  not  watered  by  rain  it 
was  windless,  stormless  and  winterless!  We  cannot 
avoid  this  conclusion  by  any  human  possibility.  And, 
again,  we  are  compelled  to  admit,  however  unwilling 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  89 

we  might  be,  that  it  was  an  age  in  which  the  sun  did  not 
and  could  not  shine  directly  upon  the  earth — i.e.,  that 
the  earth's  upper  waters  still  revolved  about  it.  At  first 
sight,  perhaps,  the  reader  might  not  think  there  is  much 
in  this.  But  we  must  remember  that  here  is  a  statement 
of  a  physical  fact,  and  if  we  had  read  it  in  Ovid  only 
the  fact  would  be  the  same:  that  if  it  be  a  true  state- 
ment—if the  earth  was  not  watered  by  rains,  but  by  "  a 
mist  " — then  the  sun's  heat  was  intercepted,  and  then 
there  was  an  intercepting  body;  and  since  these  harmo- 
nious statements  are  all  dove-tailed  into  unimpeachable 
testimony  we  are  led  to  believe  that  this  history  is  the 
most  marvelous  ever  penned  by  the  hand  of  man — a 
history  of  the  earth  while  yet  under  the  far-reaching 
influence  of  the  last  remnants  of  its  annular  appendage. 
The  last  ring  of  vapors  in  some  form  had  so  far  declined 
into  the  terrestrial  atmosphere,  as  to  spread  over  the 
earth  in  its  effort  to  reach  the  poles;  for  the  last  time 
the  sun  was  again  shut  out  of  view.  Rains  for  a  short 
geological  period  ceased  as  they  had  done  many  a  time 
before;  for,  it  must  be  remembered,  that  this  was  only 
one  of  many  similar  changes  through  which  the  earth 
passed,  and  which  left  their  records  on  its  rocky  frame. 
The  tiny  rain-drop  has  left  this  testimony  upon  the  liv- 
ing rock.  Certain  rock-formations  say  in  positive 
terms  that  ages  before  this  clouds  marshaled  their 
forces  in  the  heavens  as  they  do  now,  and  others  are 
equally  emphatic  that  rains  had  again  ceased,  and  the 
earth  was  a  world  of  verdure  unbroken  by  the  reign  of 
winter  and  storms. 

But  independently  of  all  these  considerations  we  all 
know  that  the  warm  greenhouse  climate  of  the  Eden 
world  is  boldly  set  forth  by  the  writer  or  writers  of 


90  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

Genesis.  There  was  a  warm  climate,  for  man  dwelt 
naked  upon  the  earth.  (Gen.  2:  25.)  The  infant  race 
must  have  been  nurtured  and  cradled  in  a  greenhouse 
world.  There  was  a  paradise — a  garden  in  which  all 
manner  of  trees  grew,  and  where  all  animals  named  by 
the  Adamite  lived.  Then  that  garden  was  the  Edenic 
or  greenhouse  world.  Now  what  could  have  made  this 
greenhouse  world?  This  rainless  earth?  Just  pre- 
vious to  this  the  world  was  bound  in  the  icy  fetters  of 
the  mighty  glacier — a  sea  of  universal  snow  and  ice; 
then  it  was  blooming  and  lovely,  fit  abode  for  the  hu- 
man race  in  its  infancy.  It  is  plain  that  no  feature  of 
the  Adamite  period  is  more  strongly  painted  and  em- 
phasized than  the  warm  climate  of  the  Eden  world. 
Then  another  claim  of  the  annular  theory  is  here 
vindicated.  The  very  climate  necessitated  by  the  over- 
arching waters,  is  positively  and  emphatically  set  forth; 
and  we  add  another  link  of  evidence  to  the  great 
chain.* 

Another  thing,  set  forth  in  language  too  plain  to 
be  misconstrued  is  the  great  longevity  of  man  in  ante- 
diluvian times.  People  lived  to  be  800  or  900  years 
of  age.  Now  it  seems  to  me  I  need  not  tell  the  philo- 
sophic world  that  if  members  of  the  human  race  at- 
tained the  age  of  800  years,  it  was  primarily  because 
of  a  modification  of  solar  energy.  And  as  this  subject 
will  be  fully  treated  upon  in  another  volume,  I  will 


*  Here  I  feel  strongly  inclined  to  follow  up  the  Edenic  narra- 
tive of  which  there  is  not  a  feature  that  cannot  be  beautifully 
explained  by  the  new  theory.  But  it  would  require  a  volume  to 
do  it  justice.  If  Providence  favor,  it  will  be  set  forth  in  a  future 
day.  Meanwhile,  the  reader  may  run  over  this  fascinating  field 
and  anticipate  the  inevitable  result — the  abandonment  of  the 
vain  and  unphilosophic  idea  that  the  Garden  of  Eden  was  a  local 
paradise  for  infant-man. 


Demonstrated  ly  Historic  Testimony.  91 

merely  refer  to  the  fact  that  man's  physical  environ- 
ment in  antediluvian  times,  simply  impelled  long  life; 
and  as  his  longevity  diminished  immediately  after  the 
upper  deep  fell,  and  the  sun  began  to  pour  his  beams 
upon  the  race,  it  is  evident  that  his  environment 
changed  with  that  event !  In  a  few  generations  after 
the  flood  man  died  at  the  age  of  120  or  100,  and,  finally, 
at  "  three  score  and  ten."  When  we  place  these  facts 
together,  we  find  in  man's  great  longevity  another  im- 
portant link  of  testimony.  Man  could  not  have  lived 
800  years  if  his  environment  was  then  as  it  is  now. 
Then  it  is  plain  that  his  environment  changed  at  the 
time  of  the  flood.  But  the  narrator  tells  us  that  the 
rainbow  was  then  placed  in  the  cloud!  (Gen.  9:  12.) 
Then  it  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  disputed,  that  the  sun 
came  into  view  more  clearly  at  that  time,  and  the  en- 
vironment was  changed  because  it  came. 

The  inference,  of  course,  is  that  the  rainbow  was  not 
seen  by  antediluvian  man,  which  is  one  of  the  very 
things  the  annular  theory  claims.  The  sun  could 
not  shine  through  the  annular  vapors,  or  there  could 
never  have  been  an  Eden  world.  It  could  not  shine 
upon  the  earth,  or  it  must  have  rained  in  Edenic  times. 
It  could  not  shine  upon  the  earth's  surface  because 
God  had  placed  the  deep  "  above  the  firmament,"  and 
man  lived  800  or  900  years,  because  of  certain  solar 
chromatism  and  actinism  effected  by  vaporous  absorp- 
tion. The  death-dealing  properties  of  the  solar  beam 
were  sifted  out  as  they  entered  the  revolving  vapors. 
But  I  cannot  too  strongly  press  upon  the  reader  the 
emphatic  and  conclusive  evidence  of  the  rainbow.  If 
it  came  into  view  at  the  close  of  the  deluge  there  is 
no  possible  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  fall  of 


92  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

waters    cleared    the    terrestrial   heavens   of   annular 
vapors !     Of  this  more  in  another  place. 

I  have  said  that  the  antediluvian  world  was  almost 
free  from  winds  and  storms.  It  was  free  from  them 
because  all  such  phenomena  are  children  of  the  sun- 
beam. Then  it  is  plain  that  when  the  heavens  were 
cleared,  and  the  sun  shone  directly  upon  the  earth's 
surface,  the  winds  of  the  earth  must  then  have  received 
their  directing  impetus.  Surely,  then,  if  it  had  been 
recorded  that  winds  came  into  play  in  the  economy 
of  nature  immediately  after  the  deluge,  contem- 
poraneously with  the  rainbow,  the  author  of  Genesis 
would  have  advanced  overwhelming  evidence  in  favor 
of  the  truth  of  the  theory  I  advance;  and  at  the  same 
time  invest  himself  in  an  armor  glittering  with  the 
priceless  gems  of  Truth;  giving  value  and  importance 
to  his  history  that  is  accorded  to  no  other  ancient 
book.  Will  not  my  readers  fully  grant  this?  Would 
it  not  have  been  a  glorious  summation  of  the  argument 
in  support  of  the  annular  theory?  But  stop!  Have 
we  forgotten  that  at  this  very  time,  when  the  glorious 
bow  was  painted  on  the  clouds,  or  spanning  the  new- 
born skies ;  at  the  very  time  the  "  fountains  of  the 
great  "  celestial  "  deep  were  closed,"  and  the  "  windows 
of  heaven  were  stopped,"  "  God  remembered  Noah," 
said  the  historian,  "  and  made  a  wind  to  pass  over  the 
earth."  Do  we  need  more  and  stronger  testimony  to 
plant  our  theory  upon  a  rock  that  no  man  can  shake  ? 
Can  evidence  be  more  overwhelming  than  is  found  in 
this  grand  array  of  stubborn  facts  ?  One  glance  at  the 
circumstances  under  which  this  wind  occurred,  the 
first  that  is  spoken  of,  and  perhaps  the  first  that  man 
ever  saw,  will,  must  convince  the  philosopher  that  it 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  93 

was  a  remarkable  one  indeed!  The  winds  of  this  day 
herald  the  rain.  They  bring  on  the  rain,  and  the  storm 
dies  away  in  the  calm  quiet  of  the  equipoised  elements. 
But  that  was  a  rain  from  the  fountains  of  heaven,  and 
when  it  ceased  the  sun  shone  down  on  the  desolated 
earth!  At  that  moment,  all  the  air-currents  began 
their  eternal  round.  The  trade-winds  then  began  their 
beneficent  offices.  One-half  the  earth  was  then 
warmed  by  the  sunbeam,  that  for  centuries  had  no 
power  upon  it;  and  when  we  consider  the  stupendous 
force  thus  expended,  we  can  no  longer  wonder  that  the 
wind  was  looked  upon  by  man  as  the  conqueror  of  the 
flood.  Now  the  simple  fact  that  it  came  after  the  rain 
makes  it  a  remarkable  anomaly,  and  proves  that  the 
flood  came  from  exterior  waters. 

It  can  be  readily  seen  that  if  the  wind  had  occurred 
as  it  now  does  previous  to  the  rain,  that  it  would  have 
forever  crushed  our  theory.  The  fact,  then,  that  so 
many  harmonious  links  of  evidence  join  in  its  support, 
must  give  it  overwhelming  and  crushing  weight. 

But  what  about  the  eternal  summer  of  the  Edenic 
world?  As  the  annular  theory  claims  that  summer 
and  winter  could  not  alternate  as  they  now  do;  as  the 
absence  of  the  bow  points  to  the  same  fact;  as  a  rain- 
less world  demands  the  same;  as  the  Edenic  narrative 
from  beginning  to  end  enforces  the  claim  that  the 
earth  was  characterized  by  endless  summer;  there  can 
no  longer  be  a  doubt  that  such  a  state  of  things  really 
existed.  I  presume  that  a  perpetual  summer,  necessi- 
tated by  a  modification  of  solar  actinism,  as  it  operated 
only  through  the  upper  vapors,  necessitated  long  life; 
but  did  the  writer  of  Genesis  know  this,  and  did  he 
state  that  man  lived  800  years  because  he  had  stated 


94  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

that  it  had  not  rained  ?  Did  he  state  it  had  not 
rained  because  the  Edenic  day  was  a  day  of  rest  ?  Did 
he  state,  "  God  rested,"  because  he  had  stated  the  sun 
was  not  seen,  when  there  was  light?  Did  he  give  the 
whole  narrative,  in  this  grand  and  inexpressible  har- 
mony, with  the  important  declaration,  that  there  were 
"  waters  above  the  firmament "  ?  Now  every  one 
must  see  that  all  these  circumstances,  conditions  and 
phenomena,  are  emphatically  necessary  results  of  the 
presence  of  upper  waters;  and  that  not  one  of  them 
could  naturally  have  obtained  if  there  were  no  such 
watery  or  vaporous  roof  on  high.  And,  since  eternal 
law  demands,  independently  of  all  history  or  tradition, 
that  the  God  of  nature  did  place  a  fund  of  waters 
above,  how  many  of  us  will  now  put  no  more  confidence 
in  Genesis  than  in  Herodotus?  It  is  as  plain  as  the 
noon-day  sun  that  the  absence  of  the  rainbow  in,  inter- 
diluvian  times  demands  the  existence  of  upper  vapors, 
which  the  first  stroke,  almost,  of  the  historian's  pen 
places  on  high;  and  that  nothing  else  can  explain  its 
appearance  at  the  close  of  that  appalling  debacle  of 
overwhelming  floods.  But  tell  me,  did  the  author  of 
Genesis  designingly  state  this  remarkable  truth  in 
order  to  confirm  a  dozen  previous  statements,  every  one 
of  which  is  planted  on  the  rock  of  the  annular  theory 
— the  waters  above  the  firmament  ?  Every  philosopher 
must  know  that  there  is  not  a  particle  of  truth  in  this 
rainbow  question,  except  in  this  light — and  in  this  light 
it  shines  as  one  of  the  sublimest  truths  ever  penned. 

But  I  repeat,  what  about  the  perpetual  summer  that 
this  condition  of  interdiluvian  things  imperatively  de- 
mands? this  non-existence  of  perpetual  change  in  the 
seasons,  which  the  very  presence  of  an  over-arching 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  95 

fund  of  vapors  requires?  Is  there  any  intimation  in. 
this  fruitful  history  that  points  to  a  stormless  age, — a 
winterless  world?  Man  dwelling  naked  in  his  Eden 
clime,  says  in  plain  language,  there  was  no  alternation, 
of  summer  and  winter.  His  great  longevity  is  unim- 
peachable evidence  in  favor  of  the  claim;  and  the 
physical  sabbath,  or  day  of  rest,  joins  in  the  har- 
monious chain  of  testimony.  This  eternal  summer,  it 
must  be  seen,  is  necessary  to  make  the  harmony  of  the 
historian's  account  complete. 

But  it  must  also  be  admitted  by  every  intelligent 
reader,  that  if  such  a  climate  and  conditions  of  seasons 
existed  before  the  deluge,  the  fall  of  waters  must  have 
made  a  sweeping  and  far-reaching  change  at  once. 
Eternal  spring  or  summer  must  have  changed  in  a  very 
short  period,  to  alternating  summer  and  winter,  etc. 
Now  if  the  narrator  had  even  remotely  intimated  that 
such  a  change  took  place  at  the  close  of  the  deluge, 
such  intimation  would  certainly  be  admitted  as  strong 
evidence  in  favor  of  this  theory  of  the  deluge.  Espe- 
cially when  coupled  with  the  other  new  phenomena 
and  changes  introduced,  as  before  mentioned,  it  would 
be  taken  from  the  pages  of  profane  history  as  evidence 
peculiarly  strong,  because  of  its  harmonious  union  in 
the  great  chain  of  testimony.  It  is  then  with  supreme 
satisfaction  that  I  turn  to  Gen.  8:  22,  and  read  in  plain, 
simple  terms  the  very  intimation  the  philosopher  would 
expect  and  desire  to  find. 

The  earth  had  been  desolated  for  the  last  time  by 
supra-aerial  floods.  The  survivors  of  that  appalling 
visitation  were  introduced  to  the  new  environment  and 
ordinances  of  the  skies ;  when  momentous  changes  were 
instituted,  and  new  decrees  were  set  forever.  Nature's 


96  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

philosophic  sign  of  eternal  security,  bright  and  glori- 
ous, spanned  the  new-made  firmament.  Then  the 
voice  of  nature  proclaimed  in  the  heart  and  mind  of 
man:  "  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time  and  har- 
vest, and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer  and  winter,  and 
day  and  night,  shall  not  cease."  *  It  was  the  voice  of 
God,  proclaiming  through  "  nature's  vast  cathedral," 
a  momentous  revolution.  Can  it  be,  that  the  erring 
voice  of  tradition  even,  to  say  nothing  of  the  unerring 
voice  of  law,  would  have  said  that  summer  and  winter, 
etc.,  should  forever  alternate  after  the  deluge,  if  they 
had  been  alternating  before  ?  Can  this  announcement 
be  made  to  mean  anything  at  all,  if  it  point  not  back 
to  the  greenhouse  clime  of  the  pre-diluvian  period, 
when  the  earth  was  dressed  in  the  verdure  of  eternal 
spring;  when  seed-time  and  harvest  did  not  alternate, 
but  one  perpetual  seed-time  and  one  perpetual  harvest 
were  the  familiar  characteristics  of  the  habitable  earth  ? 

It  would  seem  that  this  would  be  the  proper  place 
to  refer  more  largely  to  these  things;  and  especially  to 
the  nightless  period  of  the  Edenic  world,  when  both 
"  evening  and  morning  were  day," — i.e.,  coalesced  into 
one  period  and  called  day;  but  I  cannot  do  this  with- 
out extending  this  volume  entirely  beyond  its  intended 
limits. 

Now  turn  one  backward  glance,  and  behold  the 
ground  on  which  we  have  passed.  See  it  thickly 
strewn  with  evidence  all  pointing  to  the  upper  waters, 
predicated  upon  the  first  page  of  Genesis.  Note  the 
indisputable  fact  that  all  these  things  proclaim  a 
deluge  to  come  in  the  ordering  of  Nature's  God.  Note 
the  additional  fact,  that  pointing  to  a  deluge,  they  also 

*  I  am  inclined  to  render  the  Hebrew,  "  Shall  cease  no  more." 


Demonstrated  by  Historic  Testimony.  97 

point  beyond  it,  to  a  radical  change  after  the  flood, 
which  change  in  turn  points  back  to  the  grand  cause 
of  all,  the  annular  waters.  But  one  change  that  took 
place  because  of  a  fall  of  waters  would  stand  as  strong 
evidence  of  that  great  cause.  What,  then,  shall  we 
say  of  all  the  changes  that  followed  the  deluge  ?  Why 
did  the  bow  come  then?  Why  did  man's  longevity 
decline  at  that  time?  Why  did  alternating  seasons 
come  into  play  after  a  deluge  ?  These  things  must  be 
explained  by  philosophic  law;  and  I  stand  under  the 
protecting  wing  of  science  to  proclaim  that  philosophic 
law  declares  that  these  things,  individually  and  col- 
lectively, demonstrate  that  the  antediluvivan  world  was 
over-canopied  by  the  annular  waters. 

It  can  now  be  seen  that  the  very  manner  in  which 
these  statements  are  made,  adds  great  force  to  their 
testimony.  They  all  harmonize  and  point  to  one  cen- 
tral thought.  Not  one  contradicts  another,  and  the 
final  close  is  the  magnificent  triumph  of  the  historian, 
whose  unvarnished  statements  are  each  demonstrable 
by  inexorable  law. 

It  must  be  seen  at  a  glance,  that  the  manner  in 
which  light  came  down,  as  declared  in  the  third  verse 
of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  predicates  the  existence 
of  upper  waters,  so  does  the  "  dark "  "  face  of  the 
deep"  as  before  referred  to.  But  upper  waters  pre- 
dicate a  deluge.  Consequently  a  deluge  is  indirectly 
announced  and  prophesied  by  both  these  statements. 
Then  immediately  following  them  comes  the  positive 
statement  in  the  7th  verse,  that  there  "  were  waters 
above." 

I  care  not  who  penned  these  consecutive  statements. 


98  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

They  are  from  their  very  nature  pure  truth;  rendered 
doubly  pure  and  refined  by  the  philosophic  requisition, 
that  each  separately,  and  all  combined,  declare  that  a 
deluge  must  come.  And  the  last  statement  becomes 
a  keystone  in  the  arch  of  testimony;  for  every  man 
must  know  that  such  a  fund  of  waters  could  not  have 
existed  without  pointing  to  a  deluge  to  come!  Did  a 
deluge  come?  Independently  of  every  other  consid- 
eration, I  am  bold  to  say,  if  the  earth  has  not  been 
deluged  again  and  again,  then  every  leaf  of  the  geologic 
record  is  a  lie;  then  the  molten  earth  has  no  con- 
clusion, there  can  be  no  fires  in  the  universe,  no  suns 
or  flame;  for  law  is  law  in  every  nook  of  creation,  and 
if  solid  matter  fell  to  the  earth,  and  formed  its  mass, 
so  did  its  waters  fall  upon  it  as  the  last  remnants  of 
annular  matter.  With  this  mass  of  evidence  pointing 
to  a  deluge,  we  will  next  see  how  true  to  these  indica- 
tions there  came  a  terrible  fall  of  waters  from  the 
"  great  deep  "  on  high. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  NOACHIAN  DELUGE. 

A  professor  from  one  of  the  first  institutions  in  this 
country  once  declared,  as  he  no  doubt  conceived  to 
the  discredit  of  biblical  history,  that  "  no  one  but  a 
D.D.  now  believed  there  ever  was  a  deluge."  It  was 
well  said !  To  the  deathless  honor  of  the  "  D.D.'s  " 
may  it  always  be  said,  they  stand  for  the  testimony 
and  the  law!  I  have  shown  in  the  foregoing  chapter 
that  every  feature  and  phenomenon  of  the  Adamite 
age  point  to  a  future  deluge  as  an  utter  and  absolute 
necessity.  Let  the  reader  re-survey  the  statements 
made  in  reference  to  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  the 
divisions  of  waters,  the  "  stars,"  and  the  "  lighters"  ; 
the  light  of  the  first,  second,  third  days;  the  day  of 
rest;  the  Eden  world  and  its  climate;  the  rainless 
period,  when  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth  was 
watered  by  a  mist  only;*  man's  longevity;  the  "giants 
of  those  days  ;  "  the  absence  of  the  rainbow,  etc.,  etc., 

•  "  But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth  and  watered  the 
whole  face  of  the  ground."  ( Gen.  11:6.)  I  understand  that  by 
this  process  the  whole  earth  was  watered.  It  must  seem  to  him 
who  critically  examines  this  statement,  that  there  is  another 
philosophic  sequence  of  the  ruling  of  upper  waters  in  that  long 
day  of  physical  rest.  As  the  earth  rotated,  one-half  of  it  must 
have  been  more  directly  under  the  influence  of  diffused  solar  heat 
for  half  the  time;  during  which,  one-half  of  the  atmosphere 
would  absorb  aqueous  matter  from  sea  and  land,  and  during  the 
remainder  of  the  time  the  atmosphere  being  carried  by  rotation 
somewhat  beyond  solar  influence  into  the  "  cool  of  the  day," 
would  water  the  earth  with  excessive  dews  or  mist.  Yet  there 
are  strong  reasons  for  claiming  that  one-half  the  day  presented 
a  scene  of  rising  fog,  and  the  other  of  descending  mist.  But  we 
must  always  bear  in  mind  that  annular  vapors  were  continually 
saturating  the  air  on  high,  and  would  thus  add  to  descending 
"  mists." 


100  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

and  if  possible  draw  any  other  conclusion  than  that  this 
earth,  in  the  ordering  of  nature,  was  fated  for  a  com- 
ing fall  of  water.  What  is  more  natural  ?  And  what 
natural  visitation  could  be  more  appalling,  far-sweeping 
and  destructive,  than  this  inevitable  dispensation  ? 

I  presume  the  biblical  narrative  of  the  flood  is  in 
the  possession  of  every  reader  of  these  pages  and  I  will 
therefore  not  insert  it  here. 

The  first  impression  given  to  the  reader  of  the 
Mosaic  account  is  the  universality  of  the  falling  waters, 
which  of  course  necessitates  an  annular  source. 

Can  the  philosophic  mind,  as  it  contemplates  this 
great  world  of  law,  conceive  of  any  source  in  the  order- 
ing of  the  God  of  Nature,  from  whence  such  a  stu- 
pendous downfall  of  waters  could  come,  other  than  this 
most  natural  one  ?  A  rain  from  the  mighty  "  deep  " 
alone  could  thus  have  swept  the  earth.  And  when  we 
contemplate  that  there  is  a  volume  of  water  now  on  the 
earth,  and  in  its  rocky  frame,  sufficient  to  make  a 
thousand  terrific  deluges, — every  one  of  which  could 
drown  the  world  of  living  beings,  and  which  has  fallen 
to  the  earth,  necessarily  as  stupendous  cataclysms, — how 
can  we  reasonably  expect  that  this  historical  and  tra- 
ditional narrative  can  refer  to  any  other  than  the  clos- 
ing scene  of  annular  declension?  Let  us  reduce  the 
extent  of  this  great  debacle  of  waters  to  the  lowest 
minimum  this  narrative  will  allow,  then  take  into  con- 
sideration the  well-known  fact  that  there  scarcely  is  a 
nation,  tongue  or  tribe  on  earth  that  has  not  a  tradi- 
tion of  this  great  event,  and  yet  we  will  fail  to  find  any 
existing  source  of  such  a  rain.  Study  the  biblical  ac- 
count of  the  flood,  and  tell  me,  did  that  rain  descend 
from  the  clouds? 


Fig.  5.  THE  LAST  CANOPY  OF  EARTH. 

Here  is  our  Last  Earth  Canopy.  It  has  banished  the  last  ice  period,  and  the  Eden 
earth  blooms  again.  Biblical  and  legendary  man  dwells  naked  in  a  warm  and  genial 
world.  The  human  family,  the  world  over,  for  unknown  time  look  up  to  a  watery 
hearen  and  give  it  a  name  signifying  that  condition.  The  Hebrews  called  this 
heaven  Shamayim,  "there  waters";  the  Greeks  called  it  Ouranos,  "  water  heaven  "; 
the  Hindus  called  it  Varuna,  "  water  heaven  ";  the  Latins  called  it  Cnelum,  and  this, 
too,  was  a  watery  heaven,  for  it  passed  away.  So  did  the  heaven  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  Japanese,  Scandinavians  and  Mexicans. 

But  the  Last  Earth  Canopy  must  fall.  It  opens  at  the  equator  (e,  e),  and  the 
vapors  slowly  float  to  the  poles,  and  begin  to  fall.  Again,  as  in  ages  gone  by, 
snows  begin  to  chill  the  earth.  The  sun  shines  in  upon  the  equatorial  earth  through 
the  opening  and  air  in  that  region  rises.  This  starts  air  currents  from  the  poles 
and  these  currents  bear  the  falling  vapors  back  toward  the  equator,  thus  making 
one  long-continued  downpour  of  waters  in  medial  latitudes.  So,  in  the  windup  of 
canopy  influences,  there  must  be  not  only  a  vast  accumulation  of  snows  at  the  poles, 
but  long-continued  and  devastating  floods  in  warmer  lands. 

Those  snows  now  cap  the  poles.  Those  floods  have  sent  their  immortal  witnesses 
down  the  ages,  and  they  speak  from  the  sacred  pages  of  our  fathers  and  in  the  songs 
and  legends  of  the  whole  earth.  The  last  canopy  having  fallen,  heaven  has  made  a 
rew  and  eternal  covenant  with  earth,  and  the  Bow  is  the  eternal  Testator. 


The  Noachian  Deluge.  101 

Is  it  not  a  demonstrable  fact,  that  if  the  clouds  were 
its  source,  eternal  law  was  suspended  ?  Is  this  the  or- 
der of  nature  ?  Is  this  the  administration  under  which 
worlds  are  evolved  ?  We  cannot  admit  the  fraction  of 
law  in  the  universe  of  God !  But  if  the  deluge  did  not 
come  from  the  clouds,  then  it  came  from  beyond,  or 
above  the  clouds.  And  again  we  are  compelled  to  call 
in  the  annular  waters  as  the  only  competent  source. 
Let  us  analyze  the  account  a  little  more  minutely.  Is 
there  any  intimation  in  the  narrative  itself  that  the 
Noachian  rain  did  not  come  from  the  clouds?  There 
certainly  is,  not  only  an  intimation,  but  unmistakable 
and  positive  declarations,  that  the  clouds  did  not  and 
could  not  have  supplied  such  a  rain.  Gen.  7:11  tells 
us  that  rain  came  from  a  source  that  was  "  broken 
up  "  at  the  time  the  waters  fell ;  that  it  came  from  the 
eataractae  of  heaven — from  the  "fountains  of  the  great 
deep,"  through  the  imaginary  "  windows  of  heaven." 

If  we  will  but  reflect  that  at  that  time  mankind  be- 
lieved that  there  was  a  great  deep  on  high,  from  which 
all  rains  descended,  that  the  Deity  resided  in  that  part 
of  heaven  and  presiding  over  its  fountains,  watered 
the  earth  through  windows  opened  for  that  purpose, 
we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  sacred  pen  de- 
scribed this  great  event,  true  to  the  indications,  and  in 
absolute  harmony  with  facts.  But  the  annular 
theory  demands  the  same  conclusion.  It  requires 
that  the  source  of  the  deluge  should  have  been  "  broken 
up  "  at  that  very  time,  for  it  does  not  now  exist.  And 
any  one  can  see,  that  if  that  rain  came  from  beyond 
the  clouds,  it  came  from  revolving  waters  or  vapors; 
and  also  that  no  fountains  or  source  of  floods  could  have 
been  "  broken  up,"  except  such  a  source.  A  little 


102  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

thought  here  must  settle  this  question  in  the  philosophic 
mind. 

Again,  we  are  told  over  and  over,  in  the  eighth  and 
ninth  chapters  of  Genesis,  that  there  will  be  such  floods 
no  more  forever.  Then  it  is  impossible  for  such  rains 
to  occur  again,  and  then  we  are  forced  to  admit  again, 
that  the  source  has  been  "  broken  up."  But  no  source 
of  floods  can  be  broken  up  but  the  source  of  annular 
floods !  If  the  "  fountains  of  the  deep  "  were  on  the 
earth  or  in  the  "  seas,"  then  they  are  not  "  broken  up." 
If  they  were  in  the  clouds,  they  are  not.  If  that  source 
has  not  been  destroyed  we  are  under  the  same  precar- 
ious reign  of  floods  still;  and  no  physical  assurance 
whatever  protects  us  from  their  recurrence.  Thus,  ac- 
cording to  the  annular  hypothesis,  the  declaration  is 
positive  and  unmistakable,  that  man  is  forever  safe 
from  a  deluge;  that  the  waters  can  "no  more  become 
a  flood  "  to  "  destroy  all  flesh  "  — the  very  same  declar- 
ation made  by  the  historian,  and  which  certainly  has  no 
significance  except  in  this  light. 

Again,  the  annular  theory  declares  to  all  races  of 
men  under  heaven  that  an  eternal  covenant  is  made 
between  them  and  their  Creator,  and  that  the  rainbow 
is  an  everlasting  token  of  the  same,  just  as  the  biblical 
account  maintains.  The  two  must  agree,  as  they  must 
in  every  particular,  for  both  are  the  voice  of  nature. 
These  wondrously  harmonious  facts!  What  mar- 
velous truths  unfold  to  view  in  the  resolution  of  these 
once  mysterious  statements!  What  stronger  evidence 
can  vindicate  a  theory !  They  are  the  adamantine  sills 
upon  which  the  true  theory  of  creation  is  planted  for- 
ever. 

Now  we  know  that  a  devastating  flood  did  visit  the 


The  Noachian  Deluge.  103 

earth  in  the  human  period,  and  we  know  its  all-compe- 
tent and  philosophic  source.  "  In  the  600th  year  of 
Noah's  life,  in  the  second  month,  on  the  17th  day  of  the 
month,  the  same  day  were  all  the  fountains  of  the 
great  deep  broken  up,  and  the  windows  of  heaven  were 
opened.  And  the  rain  was  on  the  earth  forty  days  and 
forty  nights." 

It  seems  to  me  there  cannot  be  a  man  of  reason  who 
cannot  see  in  this  declaration  annular-canopy  waters 
emphatically  portrayed.  For  what  reason  have  men 
concluded  that  the  "  great  deep "  here  mentioned 
was  the  great  ocean-fund  on  the  earth  ?  Why  should 
the  imaginary  "  windows  of  heaven  "  be  opened  to  let 
down  the  waters,  if  those  waters  were  located  in  the 
fountains  in  the  earth  ?  Let  us  imagine  ourselves 
placed  in  the  same  situation  as  the  ancient  human  race, 
fully  believing  there  were  fountains  of  waters  on  high, 
over  which  the  Deity  presided,  and  which  were  the 
sources  of  descending  floods  or  rains.  Then  let  us  see 
the  same  heavens  they  saw,  cleared  of  upper  vapors, — 
veritable  fountains  of  the  deep.  Would  we  not  under 
the  same  circumstances  see  that  those  sources  of  falling 
waters  "  were  broken  up  ?"  And  further,  knowing 
that  the  bow  could  not  be  seen  if  any  of  those  vapors 
remained  on  high,  and  seeing  it  painted  on  the  skies,  as 
an  actual  sign  that  such  vapors  had  all  fallen  to  the 
earth,  would  we  not  have  said,  "  No  more  deluges  can 
occur;"  and  this,  the  bow,  is  a  token  of  the  same? 
Would  we  not  have  penned  an  account  of  this  dispensa- 
tion, just  as  the  ancient  historian  did  ?  Unless  we  ad- 
mit this  as  the  true  rendering  of  this  wonderful  narra- 
tive, what  can  we  make  of  it?  What  reason,  what 
philosophy  can  be  found  in  it  ? 


104  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

Do  we  not  know  full  well  that  no  such  terrific  rains 
could  possibly  come,  in  the  order  of  nature,  from  any 
other  source  than  from  that  beyond  the  clouds,  where 
inexorable  law  put  the  fountains  of  all  descending 
waters  in  primitive  geologic  times;  and  whence  all  the 
waters  now  on  the  earth  must  have  fallen?  The  idea 
that  the  great  deep  of  Genesis  was  or  is  the  terres- 
trial ocean,  is  a  post-diluvian  one,  and  necessarily  arose 
from  the  fact  that  our  oceans,  after  the  upper  one  had 
fallen,  became  the  only  one  man  saw.  Could  I  place 
before  my  readers  the  vast  array  of  facts  that  may  be 
drawn  from  the  antediluvian  and  interdiluvian  myth- 
ologies in  support  of  the  universal  belief  that  the 
heaven,  the  home  of  deities,  was  a  region  of  abundant 
rivers  and  fountains,  of  oceans  traversed  by  golden 
ships,  etc.,  they  would  never  doubt  the  Hebraic  idea 
that  all  rains  were  given  by  Jehovah  of  the  Gods, 
drawn  from  celestial  fountains,  and  poured  down  upon 
the  earth  through  the  "  windows  of  heaven."  The  old- 
est Hebraic  histories  teem  with  this  idea.  The  great 
Psalmist  says,  "  Praise  Him  ye  waters  above  the  heav- 
ens," "  Deep  calleth  unto  deep  at  the  noise  of  thy 
water-spouts."  Mankind  formerly  believed  that  the 
clouds  of  post-deluge  times  were  filled  from  a  great 
fund  of  waters  above  them;  and  this  was  especially  so 
among  the  Hebrews.  (See  Job  26:  7-14,  and  28:  11, 
24,  26;  also  36:30,  and  38:8-26.) 

This  idea  runs  through  the  works  of  all  the  ancient 
poets.  Homer's  and  Virgil's  writings  reveal  it  on  al- 
most every  page.  The  great  deep  of  the  Hebrews 
was  the  same  as  the  Okeanos  (Oceanus)  of  the  Greeks 
and  the  celestial  Nile  of  the  Egyptians.  When  the 
great  abyss  fell,  its  name  was  translated  from  the  skiei 


The  Noachian  Deluge.  105 

to  the  waters  of  the  earth.     In  a  succeeding  volume  of 
this  series  these  facts  will  be  fully  established. 

Unless  we  adopt  the  philosophic  view  here  set  forth, 
what  meaning  can  the  forty  days'  rain  be  made  to  as- 
sume? Waters  were  sent  from  a  great  deep  through 
the  windows  of  heaven.  Reason  forever  refuses  to  en- 
tertain the  idea  that  a  rain  from  the  clouds  met  waters 
from  the  terrestrial  oceans,  and  both  combined  overran 
the  earth.  It  is  unphilosophic  and  unnatural.  See  to 
what  endless  disorder  and  confusion,  contradiction  and 
self  stultification,  such  an  idea  impels  us.  It  at  once 
tells  us  that  the  bow  as  a  token  or  sign  of  security 
means  nothing,  and  running  from  sequence  to  cause  it 
could  be  readily  proven  that  the  first  and  eighth  chap- 
ters of  Genesis  are  a  tissue  of  contradictions  and  false- 
hoods. But  with  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep 
placed  on  high, — the  veritable  "  waters  above  the  fir- 
mament,"— we  can  readily  understand  why  the  "  win- 
dows of  heaven  were  opened,"  and  why  "  all  the  foun- 
tains were  broken  up."  A  grander  and  more  signifi- 
cant truth  was  never  penned  by  the  hand  of  man.  All 
those  fountains  were  broken  up  at  that  time, — the 
very  fact  which  the  rain-bow  proclaims  forever,  around 
the  circuit  of  the  earth.  Oh,  when  will  the  master- 
minds of  the  world  grasp  this  momentous  idea !  What 
a  sad  spectacle  the  unbelieving  world  presents  to-day, 
simply  because  the  doctrine  of  a  universal  deluge  is 
denied !  Now,  I  do  not  expect  to  claim  that  the  great 
deluge  in  its  might  and  fearful  magnitude  and  grand- 
eur, swept  the  entire  earth,  but  that  its  appalling  effects 
were  felt  in  some  form  in  every  part  of  the  globe  can- 
not be  denied.  In  another  chapter  I  will  give  solid 
reasons  for  claiming  that  the  oceans  stand  to-day  vastly 


106  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

deeper  than  they  did  in  the  Adamite  age,  and  I  will  let 
the  most  skeptical  man  answer  the  following  question. 
If  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep  should,  during  a 
down-rush  of  water  for  six  months,  raise  the  ocean  so  as 
to  cause  its  level  to  climb  upon  the  continents,  is  it 
likely  that  many  individuals  of  any  race  of  terrestrial 
beings,  could  survive  the  catastrophe?  And  would 
not  such  a  rain  or  flood  convince  the  survivors  of  the 
same  that  it  was  universal  ?  All  I  claim,  and  ask,  is 
that  men  admit  that  a  universal  flood  is  no  unnatural 
thing.  No  man  of  reason  will  for  one  moment  doubt 
that  the  earth  was  deluged  universally  when  the  oceans 
fell  to  its  surface.  The  oceans  did  fall  to  its  surface ! 
And  what  philosophy  can  there  be  advanced  against 
the  claim  that  some  part  of  the  oceans  fell  in  the  days 
of  Noah,  since  we  all  know  they  did  fall  some  time? 
If  men  choose  to  say  they  all  fell  in  pre-archsean  times, 
I  choose  to  say  they  could  not  and  did  not,  and  that  all 
the  evidence  is  on  my  side. 

What  consternation  would  fill  the  mind  of  humanity, 
if  from  some  exhaustless  fund  of  waters,  the  earth 
should  in  this  age  be  again  compelled  to  undergo  such 
a  baptism !  Such  a  rush  of  waters  as  would  drench  the 
hills  for  years,  perhaps  ages,  fill  the  valleys  till  they 
leap  their  boundaries,  and  pour  into  the  ocean  from 
millions  of  river-mouths,  till  its  level  would  rise  even 
one  foot,  would  literally  drown  the  earth;  and  a  few 
thousand  years  would  obliterate  much  of  the  impres- 
sion from  the  human  mind,  and  all  physical  appear- 
ances of  its  track.  If  at  such  a  time,  that  fund  of 
waters  were  exhausted  by  the  down-rush,  and  man  in 
ages  to  come  could  see  no  longer  any  philosophic  cause 
of  deluges,  and  forgetting  that  a  source  of  such  flood'? 


The  Noachian  Deluge.  107 

did  once  exist,  he  would  begin  to  doubt  the  truth  of  the 
old  histories  and  traditions  relating  thereto. 

This  is  the  exact  condition  to-day  of  our  knowledge 
of  the  last  great  deluge.  The  history  of  the  event  is 
chronicled  in  the  oldest  records  of  the  races.  Its 
source  has  vanished,  and  men  doubt  that  it  ever  oc- 
curred. But  let  me  again  repeat :  the  evolution  of  the 
earth  demands  that  such  a  source  be  supplied.  As 
man  directs  his  mind  to  this  investigation  he  must  and 
will  supply  it.  So  that  if  every  trace  of  the  history, 
tradition  or  physical  appearance  of  such  an  event  be 
utterly  lost,  man  must  and  will  conclude  that  the  earth 
has  been  deluged  many  times.  The  oceans,  as  they  roll 
around  the  planet,  are  the  aggregate  of  almost  endless 
additions  of  water  during  the  ages. 

At  this  point  let  us  look  back  upon  the  ground  we 
have  left.  See  the  order  in  which  this  remarkable  ac- 
count is  given.  We  are  told  there  was  a  day  when  it 
did  not  rain  on  the  earth.  Surely  every  one  of  my 
readers  can  see  that  this  necessarily  excludes  the  sun's 
direct  heat  from  the  earth's  surface.  The  sun  must 
shine  upon  the  earth,  and  heat  its  surface  before  air- 
currents  can  arise  and  enter  upon  their  round.  It  is  a 
commingling  of  air-currents  of  different  temperatures 
that  causes  rains  to  fall.  Consequently  no  currents, 
no  rain;  and  no  rains,  no  sun.  But  no  sun  necessitates 
upper  vapors,  and  upper  vapors  necessitate  an  annu- 
lar appendage;  an  annular  appendage  of  vapors  neces- 
sitates a  deluge;  and  a  deluge  from  that  source  means 
the  clearing  of  the  skies,  and  the  advent  of  the  bow; 
and  the  clearing  of  the  skies,  necessitates  a  great 
"  wind,"  and  the  beginning  of  the  grand  air-currents 
of  the  atmosphere;  and  this,  so  long  as  it  continues, 


108  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

necessitates  the  regular  alternation  of  seasons.  If 
there  be  anything  at  all  in  physical  law,  we  certainly 
cannot  avoid  this  conclusion.  How  did  it  ever  happen, 
that  the  author  or  authors  of  Genesis  related  these 
facts  in  such  harmonious  accord  with  all  those  condi- 
tions which  an  annular  arrangement  of  waters  necessi- 
tates ?  How  did  it  ever  happen  that  the  "  mistakes  of 
Moses "  were  all  made  in  the  line  of  eternal  law  ? 
"  Mistakes  !"  Facts  related  for  what  ?  To  establish 
a  theory  which  the  least  variation  or  contradiction 
would  vitiate?  We  must  value  that  history,  and  that 
historian,  that  presents  what  have  puzzled  the  greatest 
minds  of  earth  four  thousand  years. 

Again,  we  are  told  there  was  light  in  the  terrestrial 
heavens  before  the  sun  appeared;  but  light  before  the 
advent  of  the  visible  sun  necessitates  a  fund  of  inter- 
cepting matter  above  the  terrestrial  firmament ;  and  this 
requires  an  annular  or  belted  canopy;  and  this  requires 
a  day  of  physical  rest,  a  rainless  age,  an  Eden  clime, 
and  long  life;  and  (may  I  not  also  claim?)  a  race  of 
giants.*  (See  Genesis  6:4.)  But  each  and  all  these 
things  demand  a  suspension  to  a  great  extent  of  the 
regular  alternation  of  seasons,  seed-time  and  harvest, 
cold  and  heat,  and  day  and  night,  before  the  deluge. 
And  this  condition  of  things  before  the  deluge  demands 
a  change  and  a  regular  alternation  of  the  same,  as  the 
waters  fell  and  the  heavens  became  clear.  Hence  the 

*  The  presence  of  upper  vapors,  entering  the  atmosphere  on 
their  way  to  the  earth,  via  the  polar  regions,  necessitates  an  at- 
mosphere of  greater  buoyant  power.  (For  much  of  the  weight 
of  all  the  waters  of  the  deluge  was  added  thereto,  so  long  as  it 
existed  in  the  atmosphere,  which  may  have  been  the  case  for  mil- 
lenniums.) And  a  greater  buoyant  power  necessitates  larger  bod- 
ily frame.  Hence  the  greater  size  of  antediluvian  animals. 
Question:  Could  there  have  been  '  giants  in  those  days  "  if  there 
had  been  no  upper  waters? 


The  Noachian  Deluge.  109 

declaration  made  immediately  after  the  waters  fell. 
(See  Gen.  8 :  22.)  I  need  not  tell  the  reader  how  near- 
ly these  natural  causes  and  sequences  flow  in  harmony 
with  the  demands  of  the  earth's  annular  system. 

In  order  to  prove  more  fully  the  claim  that  the  great 
deep  of  diluvian  times  was  the  upper  ocean  of  ancient 
man,  we  will  draw  a  little  from  traditions,  that  yet, 
after  thousands  of  years,  live  in  the  human  mind.  As 
we  proceed,  let  the  reader  notice  the  evident  fact  that 
man,  in  the  infancy  of  the  race,  and  the  rudeness  of  his 
intellect,  coupled  the  deluge  with  celestial  streams, 
celestial  deities  and  celestial  monsters  guarding  celes- 
tial fountains.  It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  call  the 
attention  of  classical  students  and  thinkers  to  these 
facts.  They  know  the  pages  of  mythological  literature 
are  replete  with  these  ideas ;  and  every  man  must  admit 
the  only  claim  I  build  upon  this  evidence,  that  when 
these  thoughts  were  penned,  these  ideas  pervaded  the 
human  race;  that  one  main  thought  runs  through  all 
ancient  traditional  lore ;  that  the  "  great  abyss  "  of  the 
Hebrews;  the  Oceanus  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans; 
and  the  Nilus  of  the  Egyptians  were  the  "  waters  above 
the  firmament," — the  earth's  canopy  appendage. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LEGENDS  OF  THE  FLOOD. 

Having  conclusively  shown  that  vast  and  terrific 
deluges  have  been  a  philosophic  necessity  from  the  re- 
motest geologic  ages,  and  having  shown  that  the  pecu- 
liar testimony  of  Genesis  can  mean  nothing  less  than  a 
recital  of  the  effects  of  the  fall  of  the  last  remnant  of 
the  earth's  annular  system,  I  will  here  append  a  brief 
chapter  of  the  "  Flood  Legends,"  as  they  have  existed 
in  the  history  and  memory  of  the  human  race  for  un- 
known ages.  I  do  this,  not  with  the  mere  aim  to 
strengthen  the  foundation  already  laid,  but  also  to  pre- 
sent some  facts  of  interest,  permitting  one  to  draw  his 
own  conclusion  as  to  the  bearing  they  have  upon  the 
theory  I  have  advanced.  Yet  it  is  impossible  not  to  see 
in  many  of  these  legends  the  intimate  relation  between 
cataclysms  and  their  efficient  and  natural  cause.  First 
let  us  take  a  philosophic  glance  at  the  value  of  these 
legends. 

Such  widespread  desolation  must  have  indelibly  im- 
pressed the  human  mind,  and  inasmuch  as  the  account 
has  come  down  to  us  through  the  custodians  of  the  most 
reliable  history, — the  guardians  of  civilization,  the 
Aryans,  Phoenicians,  Greeks  and  Hebrews,  it  is  no  diffi- 
cult task  to  co-link  even  the  rudest  form  of  flood  tradi- 
tions with  the  one  terrible  visitation  so  graphically  re- 
lated by  the  ancient  penman.  Its  shadows  will  never 
pass  from  the  historic  page.  Men  may  impugn  and 
ridicule  the  narrative.  Yet  the  fact  remains,  that  a 
self-sustaining  history  is  there;  and  the  combined 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  Ill 

sophistry  of  all  time  cannot  shake  it.  The  day  will 
come  when  even  the  most  incredulous  will  admit  the 
main  truth  recorded  from  the  very  fact  that  it  is  self- 
corroborative.  Let  the  reader  again  peruse  the  plain 
unvarnished  narrative  as  recorded  in  Genesis.  We  are 
indebted  to  Berosus,  who  is  supposed  to  have  been  a 
Chaldean  priest,  for  the  most  valuable  traditional  ac- 
count of  the  flood.  He  lived  some  time  in  the  third 
century  B.  C.,  and  seems  to  have  had  access  to  the 
Babylonian  records.  Some  of  these,  including  the 
flood  legend,  he  translated  into  the  Greek  language. 
This  latter  I  give  as  translated  from  the  Greek  his- 
torian, and  is  as  follows : — 

"  After  the  death  of  Ardates,  his  son  Xisuthrus 
(Noah)  reigned  18  sari.  In  his  time  happened  a  great 
deluge,  the  history  of  which  is  thus  described.  The 
god  Chronos  appeared  to  him  in  a  vision,  and  warned 
him  that  upon  the  fifteenth  Daesius  there  would  be  a 
flood,  by  which  mankind  would  be  destroyed.  He 
therefore  enjoined  him  to  write  a  history  of  the  begin- 
ning, procedure  and  conclusion  of  all  things,  and  to 
bury  it  into  the  City  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara ;  and  to  build 
a  vessel,  and  take  with  him  into  it,  his  friends  and  rela- 
tions, and  to  convey  on  board  every  thing  necessary  to 
sustain  life,  together  with  all  the  different  animals,  both 
birds  and  quadrupeds,  and  trust  himself  fearlessly  to 
the  deep.  Having  asked  the  deity  whither  he  was  to 
sail,  he  was  answered  '  To  the  gods '  ;  upon  which  he 
offered  up  a  prayer  for  the  good  of  mankind.  He  then 
obeyed  the  divine  admonition  and  built  a  vessel,  five 
stadia  in  length,  and  two  in  breadth.*  Into  this  he 


•One  stadium  =  625    Roman,  600    Greek,  and  609%  English 
feet. 


112  The  Earth's  Annidar  System. 

put  every  thing  which  he  had  prepared,  and  last  of  all 
conveyed  into  it  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  friends. 
After  the  flood  had  been  upon  the  earth,  and  was  in 
time  abated,  Xisuthrus  sent  out  birds  from  the  vessel, 
which,  not  finding  any  food,  nor  any  place  whereupon 
they  might  rest  their  feet,  returned  to  him  again.  Af- 
ter an  interval  of  some  days,  he  sent  them  forth  a  second 
time,  and  they  now  returned  with  their  feet  tinged 
with  mud.  He  made  a  trial  a  third  time  with  these 
birds,  but  they  returned  to  him  no  more.  From  which 
he  judged  that  the  surface  of  the  earth  had  appeared 
above  the  waters.  He  therefore  made  an  opening  in 
the  vessel,  and  upon  looking  out,  found  that  it  was 
stranded  upon  the  side  of  some  mountain,  upon  which 
he  immediately  quitted  it  with  his  wife,  his  daughter 
and  the  pilot.  Xisuthrus  then  paid  his  adoration  to  the 
earth,  and  having  constructed  an  altar,  offered  sacri- 
fices to  the  gods,  and  with  those  who  came  out  of  the 
vessel  with  him,  disappeared.  They  who  remained 
within,  finding  that  their  companions  did  not  return, 
quitted  the  vessel  with  many  lamentations,  and  called 
continually  upon  the  name  of  Xisuthrus.  Him  they 
saw  no  more;  but  they  could  distinguish  his  voice  in  the 
air,  and  could  hear  him  admonish  them  to  pay  due  re- 
gard to  religion;  and  likewise  informed  them,  that  it 
was  on  account  of  his  piety,  that  he  was  translated  to 
live  with  the  gods,  and  that  his  wife  and  daughter  had 
obtained  the  same  honor.  To  this  he  added,  that  they 
should  return  to  Babylonia,  and  as  it  was  ordained, 
search  for  the  writings  at  Sippara,  which  they  were  to 
make  known  to  all  mankind.  Moreover,  that  the  place 
wherein  they  then  were,  was  the  land  of  Armenia.  The 
rest,  having  heard  these  words,  offered  sacrifices  to  the 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  113 

gods,  and  taking  a  circuit,  journeyed  towards  Baby- 
lonia. The  vessel  being  thus  stranded  in  Armenia, 
some  part  of  it  yet  remains  in  the  Gordyan  mountains." 
Such  is  an  account  of  the  last  grand  debacle  of  ex- 
terior waters,  as  it  comes  to  us  from  the  historian  of 
the  Chaldees.  It  bears  upon  its  face  some  important 
and  undeniable  truths.  1st.  That  its  original  source  and 
that  of  the  Biblical  account  were  one  and  the  same. 
2d.  That  the  former  had  been  long  preserved  in  the 
mind  and  memory  of  a  different  nationality,  or  people. 
The  tradition  of  the  Chaldees  shows  that  its  custodians 
were  a  maritime  people,  one  accustomed  to  the  waters. 
Their  ark  was  a  ship,  and  built  for  the  ocean,  and  their 
Noah  was  commanded  to  launch  fearlessly  upon  the 
"  deep."  The  Biblical  ark  was  a  thebotem,  a  chest  or 
box,  and  every  term  used  in  the  history  of  the  same, 
points  to  the  fact  that  it  was  a  place  of  refuge  for  an 
inland  people.  The  Chaldees  had  a  pilot,  a  term  and 
personage  employed  only  among  inhabitants  of  the 
waters.  3d.  It  shows  that  there  was  a  vast  lapse  of 
time,  from  the  date  of  the  deluge  to  the  time  when  the 
account  was  placed  upon  the  Chaldean  records.  So 
long  was  it  that  this  people  claimed  it  as  their  own  his- 
tory, just  as  every  race  and  tongue,  having  a  similar 
tradition,  does  to-day.  It  is  a  perfectly  natural  result. 
Each  tribe  and  race  has  perpetuated  the  knowledge  of 
the  deluge  in  its  own  language ;  each  has  its  own  Noah, 
ark,  ship  or  canoe.  It  would  be  exceedingly  strange 
and  unphilosophic  if  it  did  not.  There  is  another  ver- 
sion of  the  Chaldean  account  a  little  different :  "  The 
deity,  Chronos,  foretold  to  him  (Sisithrus),  that  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  month  Daesius,  there  would  be  a 
deluge  of  rain,  and  he  commanded  him  to  deposit  all 


114  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  writings  whatever,  which  were  in  his  possession,  in 
the  city  of  the  Sun  at  Sippara.  Sisithrus,  when  he 
had  complied  with  these  commands,  sailed  immediately 
to  Armenia,  and  was  presently  inspired  of  God.  Upon 
the  third  day  after  the  cessation  of  the  rain,  Sisithrus 
sent  out  birds  by  way  of  experiment,  that  he  might 
judge  whether  the  flood  had  subsided.  But  the  birds 
passing  over  an  unbounded  sea,  without  finding  any 
place  of  rest,  returned  again  to  Sisithrus.  This  he  re- 
peated with  other  birds,  and,  when  upon  the  third  trial 
he  succeeded  (for  the  birds  then  returned  with  their 
feet  stained  with  mud),  the  gods  translated  him  from 
among  men.  With  respect  to  the  vessel,  which  yet  re- 
mains in  Armenia,  it  is  a  custom  of  the  inhabitants  to 
form  bracelets  and  amulets  from  its  wood." 

I  wish  here  to  again  call  the  attention  of  the  reader 
to  the  indisputable  fact,  that  the  continual  decline  of. 
revolving  vapors,  as  they  progressed  toward  the  poles, 
would  cause  them  to  grow  thin  near  the  equator,  and 
that  the  sun  became  visible  in  the  equatorial  world  long 
before  the  great  catastrophe  to  which  these  traditions 
allude.  This  seems  to  have  been  the  case  of  the  cherub 
sun  more  than  a  thousand  years  before  the  days  of 
Noah.  That  the  sun's  coming  into  view  would  be  the 
only  physical  means,  possessed  by  the  human  race,  as 
a  warning  against  the  impending  danger.  How  signi- 
ficant then  the  fact  that  Chronos,  the  god  of  time,  the 
vapor-veiled  sun,  is  represented  here  as  announcing  to 
the  human  race  the  coming  deluge?  After  this  great 
cataclysm  of  water,  when  the  sun  became  clear  and 
visible  to  the  entire  world,  what  could  be  more  natural 
and  reasonable  than  that  the  remnant  of  the  human 
race,  as  they  multiplied  and  filled  the  earth,  knowing 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  115 

that  this  luminary  came  into  view  as  the  waters  fell, 
should  look  upon  it  as  a  deity — a  measurer  of  time — 
and  finally,  as  a  veritable  personage  who  had  given 
warning  of  the  coming  deluge,  Now,  anyone  can  see 
to-day  that  the  sun  would  be  to  the  scientists  of  this 
age,  an  actual  measurer,  and  he  would  not  be  very  much 
of  a  mathematician,  at  this  age,  who  could  not  by  notic- 
ing the  appearance  of  the  moving  belts,  the  perpetual 
change  in  the  halo,  the  fitful  and  frequent  falls  of 
vapor,  as  the  years  rolled  by,  calculate  the  month 
and  the  day  of  the  final  collapse.  It  seems  that  man 
knew  of  this  coming  dispensation  long  enough  to  enable 
him  to  build  an  ark.  How  did  he  get  the  information  ? 
The  simple  fact  is,  that  Noah  was  informed  of  God, 
either  as  a  seer  or  mathematician.  Which  ? 

As  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to  the  reader  to  learn 
something  of  the  records  from  which  this  tradition 
came,  I  will  present  in  this  chapter  some  parts  of  the 
rude  legend  of  the  flood,  imprinted  on  brick  tablets, 
perhaps  in  the  early  age  of  the  Babylonian  monarchy, 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  4,000  years  ago,  and  stored  away  in 
the  libraries  of  Nineveh,  and  other  cities,  now  mould- 
ered to  dust  and  marked  only  by  rounded  heaps  or 
mounds.  From  these  mounds,  the  persistent  efforts  of 
Layard  and  Smith  have  brought  to  light  vast  numbers 
of  these  tablets,  veritable  books  of  those  long-lost  ages, 
which  have  been  so  far  deciphered  and  translated,  as 
to  show  conclusively  what  they  are.  These  volumes 
are  inscribed  in  cuneiform  characters, — characters  so 
exceedingly  old  that  it  was  but  a  happy  accident  that 
the  key  to  their  meaning  was  discovered  and  that 
archaeologists  are  now  able  to  interpret  them.  These 


116  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

tablets  are  so  mutilated  and  broken  that  their  full  text 
cannot  be  made  out. 

"  I  listened  to  the  decree  of  fate  that  he  announced, 
and  he  said  to  me : — '  Man  of  Shurippak,  son  of  Ubar- 
atutu — thou,  build  a  vessel  and  finish  it  (quickly). — 
(By  a  deluge)  I  will  destroy  substance  and  life. — Cause 
thou  to  go  up  into  the  vessel  the  substance  of  all  that 

has  life. The  vessel  thou  shalt  build — 600  cubits 

shall  be  the  measure  of  its  length — and  60  cubits  the 
amount  of  its  breadth  and  of  its  height. —  — (Launch it) 
thus  on  the  ocean,  and  cover  it  with  a  roof.'—  —I under- 
stood, and  I  said  to  Ea,  my  lord: — '(The  vessel)  that 
thou  commandest  me  to  build,  thus — (when)  I  shall 
do  it, — young  and  old  (shall  laugh  at  me.)'-  — (Ea 
opened  his  mouth  and)  spoke. — He  said  to  me,  his  ser- 
vant:— '(If  they  laugh  at  thee)  thou  shalt  say  to 
them: — (shall  be  punished)  he  who  has  insulted  me, 
(for  the  protection  of  the  gods)  is  over  me —  .  .  .  like 
to  caverns  ...  —  ...  I  will  exercise  my  judgment 
on  that  which  is  on  high,  and  that  which  is  below  .  .  . 
— ...  Close  the  vessel.  .  .  —  .  .  .  At  a  given  moment 
that  I  shall  cause  thee  to  know, — enter  into  it,  and 
draw  the  door  of  the  ship  toward  thee. — Within  it,  thy 
grains,  thy  furniture,  thy  provisions, — thy  riches,  thy 
men-servants  and  thy  maid-servants,  and  thy  young 
people — the  cattle  of  the  field,  and  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  plain  that  I  will  assemble — and  that  I  will  send 
thee,  shall  be  kept  behind  thy  door.'  Khasisatra  opened 
his  mouth  and  spoke ; — he  said  to  Ea,  his  lord :  '  No 

one  has  made  (such  a)  ship. On  the  prow  I  will  fix 

.  .  .  — I  shall  see  .  .  .  and  the  vessel  .  .  .  — the  ves- 
sel thou  commandest  me  to  build  (thus) — which  in  .  .  .' 
On  the  fifth  day  (the  two  sides  of  the  bark)  were 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  117 

raised. — In  its  covering  fourteen  in  all  were  its  rafters 
— fourteen  in  all  did  it  count  above. — I  placed  its  roof, 
and  I  covered  it. — I  embarked  in  it  on  the  sixth  day; 
I  divided  its  floors  on  the  seventh;  I  divided  the  in- 
terior compartments  on  the  eighth.  I  stopped  up 
the  chinks  through  which  the  water  entered  in; — I 
visited  the  chinks,  and  added  what  was  wanting. — I 
poured  on  the  exterior  three  times  3600  measures 
asphalte, — three  times  3600  measures  of  asphalte 
within. — Three  times  3600  men,  porters  brought  on 
their  heads  the  chests  of  provisions. — I  kept  3600 
chests  for  the  nourishment  of  my  family, — and  the 
mariners  divided  among  themselves  twice  3600  chests. 
— For  (provisioning)  I  had  oxen  slain; — I  instituted 
(rations)  for  each  day. — In  (anticipation  of  the  need 
of)  drinks,  of  barrels,  and  of  wine — (I  collected  in 
quantity)  like  to  the  waters  of  a  river,  (of  provisions) 
in  quantity  like  the  dust  of  the  earth. — (To  arrange 
them  in)  the  chests  I  set  my  hand  to. —  ...  of  the  sun 

.  .  .  the  vessel  was  completed. .  .  .  strong  and — 

I  had  carried  above  and  below  the  furniture  of  the  ship 
— (This  landing  filled  the  two  thirds.)  All  that  I  pos- 
sessed I  gathered  together;  all  I  possessed  of  silver  I 
gathered  together — all  that  I  possessed  of  gold  I  gath- 
ered together — all  that  I  possessed  of  the  substance  of 
life  of  every  kind  I  gathered  together, — I  made  all  as- 
cend into  the  vessel; my  servants, male  and  female, — the 
cattle  of  the  fields,  the  wild  beasts  of  the  plains,  and  the 
sons  of  the  people,  I  made  them  all  ascend.  Shamash 
(the  sun)  made  the  moment  determined,  and — he  an- 
nounced it  in  these  terms : — 'In  the  evening  I  will  cause 
it  to  rain  abundantly  from  heaven ;  enter  into  the  vessel 
and  close  the  door' — the  fixed  moment  had  arrived, 


118  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

which  he  announced  in  these  terms; — '  In  the  evening  I 
will  cause  it  to  rain  abundantly  from  heaven.' — When 
the  evening  of  that  day  arrived,!  was  afraid — I  entered 
into  the  vessel  and  shut  my  door. — In  shutting  the  ves- 
sel, to  Buzur-shadi-rabi,  the  pilot, — I  confided  this 
dwelling  with  all  that  it  contained.  Mu-sheri-ina- 
namari — rose  from  the  foundations  of  heaven  in  a  black 
cloud; — Rammon  thundered  in  the  midst  of  the  cloud, 
— and  Nabon,  and  Sharru  marched  before; — they 
marched,  devastating  the  mountain  and  the  plain; — 
Nergal,  the  powerful,  dragged  chastisement  after  him; 
— Adar  advanced,  overthrowing  before  him; — the  arch- 
angels of  the  abyss  brought  destruction. — in  their  ter- 
rors they  agitated  the  earth. — The  inundation  of  Ram- 
mon swelled  up  to  the  sky, — and  (the  earth)  became 
without  lustre,  was  changed  into  a  desert.  They  broke 
...  of  the  surface  of  the  earth  like  .  .  .  ; — (they  de- 
stroyed) the  living  beings  of  the  surface  of  the  earth. 
— The  terrible  (deluge)  on  men  swelled  up  to  (heaven). 
—The  brother  no  longer  saw  his  brother;  men  no 
longer  knew  each  other.  In  heaven — the  gods  became 
afraid  of  the  water-spout,  and — sought  a  refuge;  they 
mounted  up  to  the  heaven  of  Anu. — The  gods  were 
stretched  out  motionless,  pressing  one  against  another 
like  dogs. — Ishtar  wailed  like  a  child, — the  great  god- 
dess pronounced  her  discourse: — 'Here  is  humanity 
turned  into  mud,  and — this  is  the  misfortune  that  I 
have  announced  in  the  presence  of  the  gods. — So  I  an- 
nounced the  misfortune  in  the  presence  of  the  gods, — 
for  the  evil  I  announced,  the  terrible  (chastisement)  of 
men  who  are  mine. — I  am  the  mother  who  gave  birth 
to  men,  and — like  to  the  race  of  fishes,  there  they  are 
filling  the  sea; — and  the  gods,  by  reason  of  that — which 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  119 

the  archangels  of  the  abyss  are  doing,  weep  with  me.' 
— The  gods  on  their  seats  were  seated  in  tears, — and 
they  held  their  lips  closed,  (revolving)  future  things. 
Six  days  and  as  many  nights  passed;  the  wind,  the 
water-spout,  and  the  diluvian  rain  were  in  all  their 
strength.  At  the  approach  of  the  seventh  day  the 
diluvian  rain  grew  weaker,  the  terrible  water-spout — 
which  had  assailed  after  the  fashion  of  an  earthquake, 
grew  calm,  the  sea  inclined  to  dry  up,  and  the  wind 
and  the  water-spout  came  to  an  end.  I  looked  at  the 
sea,  attentively  observing,  and  the  whole  of  humanity 
had  returned  to  mud;  like  unto  sea-weeds  the  corpses 
floated.  I  opened  the  windows,  and  the  light  smote  on 
my  face.  I  was  seized  with  sadness;  I  sat  down  and  I 
wept; — and  my  tears  came  over  my  face.  I  looked  at 
the  regions  bounding  the  sea;  toward  the  twelve  points 
of  the  horizon;  not  any  continent. — The  vessel  was 
borne  above  the  land  of  Nizir, — the  mountain  of  Mzir 
arrested  the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over. 
— A  day,  and  a  second  day  the  mountain  of  Nizir  ar- 
rested the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over; — 
the  third  and  fourth  day  the  mountain  of  Nizir  arrested 
the  vessel,  and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over; — the  fifth 
and  sixth  day  the  mountain  of  Nizir  arrested  the  ves- 
sel, and  did  not  permit  it  to  pass  over.  At  the  ap- 
proach of  the  seventh  day,  I  sent  out  and  loosed  a 
dove.  The  dove  went  out,  turned,  and — found  no 
place  to  light  on,  and  it  came  back.  I  sent  out  and 
loosed  a  swallow;  the  swallow  went,  turned,  and — 
found  no  place  to  light  on  and  it  came  back.  I  sent 
out  and  loosed  a  raven;  the  raven  went  and  saw  the 
corpses  on  the  water;  it  ate,  rested,  turned,  and  came 
not  back.  I  then  sent  out  (what  was  in  the  vessel) 


120  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

toward  the  four  winds,  and  I  offered  a  sacrifice.  I 
raised  the  pile  of  my  burnt-offering  on  the  peak  of  the 
mountain;  seven  by  seven  I  disposed  the  measured 
vases, — and  beneath  I  spread  rushes,  cedar,  and  juni- 
per-wood. The  gods  were  seized  with  the  desire  of  it 
— the  gods  were  seized  with  a  benevolent  desire  of  it; 
— and  the  gods  assembled  like  flies  above  the  master 
of  the  sacrifice.  From  afar,  in  approaching,  the  great 
goddess  raised  the  great  zones  that  Anu  has  made  for 
their  glory  (the  gods).  These  gods,  luminous  crystal 
before  me,  I  will  never  leave  them ;  in  that  day  I  prayed 
that  I  might  never  leave  them. 

"Let  the  gods  come  to  my  sacrificial  pile  ! — but  never 
may  Bel  (sun)  come  to  my  sacrificial  pile!  for  he  did 
not  master  himself,  and  he  has  made  the  water-spout 
for  the  Deluge,  and  he  has  numbered  my  men  for  the 
pit.  From  afar,  in  drawing  near,  Bel — saw  the  vessel, 
and  Bel  stopped; — he  was  filled  with  anger  against  the 
gods  and  the  celestial  archangels : — '  No  one  shall 
come  out  alive !  No  man  shall  be  preserved  from  the 
abyss !  ' — Adar  opened  his  mouth  and  said ;  he  said  to 
the  warrior  Bel : — '  What  other  than  Ea  should  have 
formed  this  resolution  ? — for  Ea  possesses  knowledge, 
and  (he  foresees)  all.' — Ea  opened  his  mouth  and 
spoke ;  he  said  to  the  warrior  Bel : — '  O  thou,  herald  of 
the  gods,  warrior, — as  thou  didst  not  master  thyself, 
thou  hast  made  the  water-spout  of  the  Deluge. — Let 
the  sinner  carry  the  weight  of  his  sins,  the  blasphemer 
the  weight  of  his  blasphemy. — Please  thyself  with  this 
good  pleasure,  and  it  shall  never  be  infringed;  faith  in 
it  never  (shall  be  violated).  Instead  of  thy  making  a 
new  deluge,  let  lions  appear  and  reduce  the  number  of 
men; — instead  of  thy  making  a  new  deluge,  let  hyenas 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  121 

appear  and  reduce  the  number  of  men; — instead  of 
thy  making  a  new  deluge  let  there  be  famine,  and  let 
the  earth  be  (devastated) ; — instead  of  thy  making  a 
new  deluge,  let  Dibbara  appear,  and  let  men  be 
(mown  down).  I  have  not  revealed  the  decision  of  the 
great  gods; — it  is  Khasisatra  who  interpreted  a  dream 
and  comprehended  what  the  gods  had  decided.' 
Then,  when  his  resolve  was  arrested,  Bel  entered  into 
the  vessel. — He  took  my  hand  and  made  me  rise. — He 
made  my  wife  rise,  and  made  her  place  herself  at  my 
side. — He  turned  around  us  and  stopped  short;  he  ap- 
proached our  group. — '  Until  now  Khasisatra  has  been 
made  part  of  perishable  humanity; — but  lo,  now  Khas- 
isatra and  his  wife  are  going  to  be  carried  away  to  live 
with  the  gods, — and  Khasisatra  will  reside  afar  at  the 
mouth  of  the  rivers.' — They  carried  me  away  and  es- 
tablished me  in  a  remote  place  at  the  mouth  of  the 
streams,"  etc.,  etc. 

Here  we  have  in  rude  form  the  legend  of  the  flood 
lettered  on  brick  and  stone  thousands  of  years  ago.  In 
the  libraries  of  Nineveh,  a  city  within  whose  walls 
were  "  six  score  thousand  persons  who  knew  not  the 
right  hand  from  the  left,"  they  were  stored  away  and 
when  her  temples  went  to  dust  there  they  remained. 
Amid  the  shock  of  war  her  walls  went  down,  and  the 
shout  of  armies  echoed  through  her  streets.  When 
citadels  and  temples  and  courts  had  gone  to  dust,  her 
silent  libraries  were  waiting  but  to  speak  in  other 
tongues,  in  a  world  of  light.  That  light  came  and  her 
dust  awoke  and  she  speaks  again.  She  says  in  language 
too  plain  to  be  mistaken,  that  when  these  rocky  vol- 
umes were  inscribed,  the  tradition  then  was  old!  So 


122  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

old  the  carver  or  printer  scarcely  knew  the  doubtful 
from  the  true. 

Some  of  my  readers  perhaps  are  aware  that  some 
that  aim  to  cast  discredit  upon  the  Biblical  account  of 
the  deluge,  make  the  claim  that  the  writer  of  Genesis 
borrowed  the  account  from  the  Nineveh  columns. 
How  strange  that  any  man  of  reason  should  make  the 
claim.  Place  the  two  side  by  side,  and  tell  me  which 
is  more  natural,  which  is  more  in  accord  with  facts, 
with  law?  Which  more  distinctly  portrays  a  down- 
rush  of  exterior  floods;  which  possesses  the  more  har- 
monious links  of  truth  in  the  light  of  modern  discov- 
eries; which  of  the  two  reveals  more  plainly  the  neces- 
sity of  waters  beyond  the  firmament?  A  Sabbath 
of  physical  rest,  a  rainless  age,  an  Eden  world,  a  wind- 
less, nightless,  winterless  age  ?  Which  of  them  reveals 
the  positive  fact  that  there  can  never  be  another 
deluge;  and  which  of  them  seals  the  eternal  covenant 
with  the  stamp  of  God  impressed  upon  the  clouds? 
How  many  of  these  were  borrowed  from  Nineveh's 
sapient  piles?  While  these  ancient  tablets  are  engag- 
ing our  attention,  let  me  call  the  reader's  thoughts  to 
the  patent  fact  that  their  authors,  like  the  rest  of  the 
older  world,  looked  upon  the  heavens  as  the  home  of 
fountains  and  rivers.  The  imaginary  lands  of  the  gods 
beyond  the  clouds  were  a  world  of  waters  traversed  by 
celestial  ships  inhabited  by  all  imaginary  monsters. 

Here  the  sage  who  escaped  the  flood  and  was  trans- 
lated to  the  skies  relates  to  Izdubar  the  story  of  the 
flood.  Izdubar  seeks  an  entrance  into  the  celestial 
world  and  pleads  in  behalf  of  his  dead  companion  who 
is  resting  uncomfortably  in  Hades,  and  asks  that  he  be 
rescued.  His  dead  companion  also  joins  in  the  appeal  in 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  123 

the  following  language : .  .  .  "  Return  me  from  Hades, 
the  land  of  my  knowledge,  from  the  house  of  the  de- 
parted, the  seat  of  the  god  Irkalla  from  the  house  with- 
in which  there  is  no  exit.  From  the  road  the  course  of 
which  never  returns.  From  the  place  within  which  they 
long  for  light.  The  place  where  dust  is  their  nourish- 
ment and  their  food  mud.  Its  chiefs  also  like  birds  are 
clothed  with  wings.  Light  is  never  seen;  in  darkness 
they  dwell."  Such  was  their  picture  of  Hades,  the 
under-world,  and  their  description  of  the  place  proves 
their  belief  in  such  a  place  and  a  future  life.  But  now 
comes  the  picture  of  the  land  of  the  blessed  after  death. 
..."  Return  me  to  the  place  of  seers  which  I  will 
enter .  .  .  treasured  up  a  crown ;  .  .  .  wearing  crowns 
who  from  days  of  old  ruled  the  earth.  To  whom 
the  gods,  Anu  and  Bel,  have  given  renowned  names. 
A  place  where  water  is  abundant  drawn  from  peren- 
nial springs."  Also  let  us  note  in  this  connection  one 
more  very  significant  fact,  that  the  ancient  Baby- 
lonians considered  the  sun  to  be  the  author  of  the 
deluge.  On  one  column  are  inscribed  the  sentiments 
of  Noah,  "  May  the  gods  come  to  my  altar;  may  Bel 
(the  sun-god)  come  not  to  my  altar;  for  he  did  not  mas- 
ter himself  and  made  a  deluge,  and  my  people  he  had 
consigned  to  the  deep.  From  of  old  also  Bel  in  his 
course  saw  the  ship,  etc."  Again  when  the  patriarch 
of  the  ship  was  about  to  leave  his  vessel,  he  says,  "Adra- 
hasis  (Xoah,)  a  dream  they  senf  and  the  judgment 
of  the  gods  he  heard.  When  his  judgment  was  accom- 
plished Bel  went  up  to  the  midst  of  the  ship;  he  took 
my  hand  and  raised  me  up;  he  caused  to  raise  and 
bring  my  wife  to  my  side  .  .  .  When  Hasisadra  and 
his  wife,  and  the  people  to  be  like  gods  were  carried 


124  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

away,  then  dwelt  Hasisadra  in  a  remote  place  at  the 
mouth  of  the  rivers."  Thus  it  seems  the  idea  of  celes- 
tial rivers  and  streams  "  fed  by  perennial  fountains  " 
was  a  common  one  4,000  years  ago.  And  that  Bel 
(Belus),  the  Sun,  was  Nineveh's  god,  and  her  author 
of  the  flood.  How  natural  these  things  appear!  The 
sun  coming  into  view  as  the  waters  fell,  was  esteemed  a 
deity,  and  the  direct  cause  of  man's  destruction. 
Hence  for  unknown  generations,  he  was  feared  and 
adored  by  the  survivors  of  the  flood.  This  will  be  more 
fully  understood  in  connection  with  other  traditions. 
I  shall  treat  elsewhere  of  the  ancient  belief  of  man- 
kind that  the  heavens  were  supported  by  giants,  whose 
heads  received  the  lofty  vault  of  the  firmament,  and 
whose  feet  were  planted  in  the  depths  of  the  earth; 
that  the  origin  of  this  belief  was  the  actual  existence 
in  the  eastern  and  western  skies,  of  the  appearance  of 
vast  columns  rising  from  the  horizon,  and  spreading 
out  against  the  face  of  the  sky,  their  huge  Briarean 
arms,  the  actual  vapor-bands  that  afterwards  fell.  Now 
hear  what  George  Smith,  the  indomitable  searcher 
and  discoverer  of  these  old  tablets,  says  after  years  of 
study  in  this  direction.  "  They  (ancient  Babylonians) 
held  the  idea  that  at  a  little  distance  from  them  there 
were  giants  who  controlled  the  rising  and  setting  sun, 
and  that  the  orb  of  day  was  looked  after,  and  sent  on 
its  course  by  these  beings,  who  had  their  feet  in  the 
lower  region  of  hell  while  their  heads  touched  and 
probably  upheld  the  heavens."  Veritable  pillars  of 
Hercules, — pillars  of  the  sun.  How  immortal  are  some 
crude  ideas.  This  idea  which  must  have  obtained  be- 
fore the  deluge,  lived  in  the  mind  of  men  for  unknown 
ages  after  these  phenomena  disappeared. 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  125 

When  America  was  discovered  there  existed  among 
the  Mexicans  a  tradition  of  a  deluge,  which  represented 
that  a  couple  of  people  were  saved  therefrom  in  a  ship 
or  raft,  from  which  birds  were  sent  to  ascertain  whether 
the  waters  had  subsided.  Some  of  these  it  is  stated 
saw  the  floating  carcasses  on  the  water  and  fed  thereon. 
Humboldt  tells  us  that  "  of  the  different  nations  who 
inhabit  Mexico,  paintings  representing  the  deluge  are 
found  among  the  Aztecs,  the  Mizletecs,  the  Zapotecs, 
Tlascaltecs  and  the  Mechoachans.  The  Noah,  Xisu- 
thrus  or  Menu  of  these  nations  is  Coxcix  Teocipactli 
or  Tezpi.  He  saved  himself  and  his  wife  in  a  bark,  or, 
according  to  other  traditions,  on  a  raft.  But  accord- 
ing to  the  Mechoachans  he  embarked  in  a  spacious 
'acalli,'  with  his  wife,  his  children,  several  animals 
and  some  grain,  the  preservation  of  which  was  import- 
ant to  mankind,  when  the  great  spirit  ordered  the 
waters  to  withdraw.  Tezpi  sent  out  from  his  ship  a 
vulture,  the  Zapilote.  This  bird  that  feeds  on  dead  flesh 
did  not  return.  .  .  .  Tezpi  sent  out  other  birds,  one  of 
which,  the  humming  bird,  alone  returned,  holding  in 
its  beak  a  branch  covered  with  leaves.  Tezpi,  seeing 
that  fresh  verdure  began  to  clothe  the  soil,  quitted  his 
bark  near  the  mountain  of  Colhauacan  "  (Humb.  Res. 
p.  65.) 

Another  tradition  of  the  ancient  Mexicans  states 
that  4,800  years  after  the  creation,  a  great  inundation 
took  place;  that  before  this  the  country  of  Anahuac 
was  inhabited  by  giants;  that  after  the  deluge  the  sur- 
vivors built  a  hill  in  the  shape  of  a  pyramid,  the  top 
of  which  was  to  reach  the  clouds.  This  displeased 
the  gods,  who  hurled  fire  on  the  builders,  some  of  whom 
were  killed,  and  the  monument  was  afterwards  dedi- 


126  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

cated  to  Quelzolcoatl  (Jupiter).  Thus  we  see  in  the 
legends  of  Mexico,  parts  of  the  Chaldean  tradition,  such 
as  the  floating  carcasses  and  the  devouring  birds — tra- 
ditions which  were  buried  for  4,000  years  in  Babylon- 
ian libraries.  During  all  this  time,  then,  the  memory 
of  this  great  dispensation  lived  in  the  mind  of  man. 
How  indelible  the  stamp  it  has  placed  upon  the  death- 
less pages  of  tradition. 

Ellis,  in  his  "  Polynesian  Researches,"  says :  "  The 
Sandwichers  believe  that  the  Creator  destroyed  the 
earth  by  an  inundation  that  covered  the  whole  earth 
except  Mouna  Roa  in  Hawaii,  on  the  top  of  which  one 
single  pair  had  the  good  fortune  to  save  themselves." 
Thus  in  the  midst  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  cut  off  from 
every  source  of  information  from  the  scenes  of  Arme- 
nian history,  the  same  tradition  lives.  Another  thing 
plainly  to  be  seen  in  these  deluges  is  the  cataclysmic 
character  of  the  devouring  waters.  "  The  archangel 
of  the  (celestial)  abyss  brought  destruction."  "  The 
waters  rose  to  the  sky."  The  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
"  fill  the  sea  like  fishes."  Their  "  corpses  floated  like 
sea-weeds."  It  was  a  war  of  elements  most  terrific. 
"  Water-spouts  pouring  from  the  abyss."  Ea  opened 
his  mouth  and  spake;  he  said  to  the  warrior  Bel  (the 
sun),  "Oh,  thou,  herald  of  the  gods,  warrior — as  thou 
didst  not  master  thyself  (didst  not  consider),  thou  hast 
made  the  water-spout  of  the  Deluge."  Again — "  Six 
days  and  as  many  nights  passed;  the  wind,  the  water- 
spout, and  the  diluvian  rain,  were  in  all  their  strength." 
"In  heaven  the  gods  became  afraid  of  the  water-spout." 
Thus  all  through  legendic  lore,  we  can  trace  the  belief 
of  man  that  the  deluge  was  a  mighty  down-rush  of 
waters  from  the  celestial  abyss,  and  that  Bel,  the  sun- 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  127 

god,  was  the  author  of  it  all.  Deucalion's  flood,  which 
is  evidently  the  Chaldean  modified  to  suit  the  Greeks, 
sets  forth  many  of  the  same  occurrences  and  features 
just  named,  and  I  need  not  add  them  here. 

Among  the  Hindoo  legends  I  find  the  following: 
One  morning  water  for  washing  was  brought  to  Manu, 
and  when  he  had  washed  himself,  a  fish  remained  in 
his  hands,  and  addressed  him  thus, .  .  .  "  a  deluge  will 
sweep  all  creatures  away  .  .  .  the  very  year  I  shall 
have  reached  my  full  growth  the  deluge  will  hap- 
pen. Then  build  a  vessel  and  worship  me.  When  the 
waters  rise,  enter  the  vessel  and  I  will  save  thee." 
There  is  also  another  form  translated  from  Hindoo, 
which  is  evidently  taken  from  the  Chaldean  or  Biblical. 
"  In  seven  days  the  three  worlds  shall  be  submerged." 
Among  the  Iranians,  the  sacred  books  relate  how  the 
original  ancestor,  under  the  name  of  Yima,  is  ordered 
to  construct  an  enclosure  and  cause  men  and  animals 
to  enter  it  in  order  to  escape  destruction  from  a  deluge. 
Now  all  these  legends,  pointing  to  the  general  destruc- 
tion of  man  and  beast,  and  the  construction  of  some 
ship,  chest  or  enclosure  to  preserve  them,  leads  direct- 
ly to  the  annular  system  as  the  source  of  the  destroy- 
ing waves.  Both  the  legend  of  Ogyge's  flood  and  that 
of  Deucalion,  refer  to  the  offices  of  the  ark  in  the  pre- 
servation of  a  few  persons,  from  a  general  destruction. 
The  Koran  says,  "  All  men  were  drowned  save  Noah 
and  his  family;  and  then  God  said,  '  Oh  Earth,  swal- 
low up  thy  waters,  and  thou  Oh  Heaven,  withhold  thy 
rain,'  and  immediately  the  waters  abated."  The 
Egyptians  seem  to  have  had  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
deluge,  for  they  told  Solon  that  there- had  been  many; 


128  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

and  also  told  him  of  "  one  great  deluge  of  all." — Plato's 
"  Dialogues." 

My  readers  no  doubt  are  familiar  with  the  fable  of 
Phaeton,  son  of  Helios,  who  harnessed  the  steeds  of  the 
sun  to  his  father's  chariot,  but  because  he  was  not  able 
to  keep  them  in  the  path  of  his  father,  produced  a  gen- 
eral conflagration  and  destruction.  This  evidently 
is  a  myth  which  arose  from  the  fact  that,  as  the  upper 
vapors  declined,  the  sun  came  more  vividly  into  view, 
and  as  the  waters  of  the  deluge  fell,  it  became  visible 
in  all  its  might  and  majesty,  and  all  terrestrial  nature, 
including  man  and  beast,  all  vegetation  unaccus- 
tomed to  the  blaze  of  the  sun,  must  have  suffered 
from  its  direct  action.  So  the  sun-power  would  be  re- 
membered with  the  same  vividness  as  the  deluge,  by 
those  in  lands  not  so  greatly  affected  by  the  fall  of 
waters.  And  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  above  all  others,  I 
presume  this  phenomenon  would  be  more  thoroughly 
remembered.  Now  it  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that 
the  Egyptian  priests  should  tell  Solon  that  the  fable 
"  Really  means  a  decline  of  the  bodies  moving  around 
the  earth,  and  in  the  heavens."  The  declaration 
could  not  be  plainer  if  it  said,  it  "  Really  means  the 
fall  of  revolving  vapors  from  the  heavens."  (See 
Plato's  "  Dialogues.")  This  volume  might  be  filled 
with  such  traditions,  from  almost  every  nation,  kindred 
and  tongue  on  the  earth.  Hindoos,  Brahmins,  Chinese, 
Sandwichers,  Fijis,  Peruvians,  Mexicans  and  Alaskans 
have  all  preserved  deathless  memorials  of  this  great 
event. 

The  classical  student  is  now  prepared  perhaps  to  see 
that  the  rock  of  the  annular  theory  underlies  the  en- 
tire system  of  Eastern  and  Western  mythologies; — • 


Legends  of  the  Flood.  129 

that  the  light  radiating  from  the  former,  illumines  and 
simplifies  the  latter  to  a  marvelous  extent.  Let  us  ad- 
mit the  interdiluvian  world  to  have  been  in  its  earlier 
periods  the  scene  of  perpetual  day  lighted  up  by  a  yet 
invisible  sun,  and  a  hundred  mysteries  are  readily 
solved.  First  we  may  readily  understand  why  the 
sacred  historian  informed  his  readers  that  day  and 
night  should  forever  alternate  after  the  deluge  when 
the  sun  came  distinctly  into  view.  (See  Gen.  8:  22.) 
Then  we  may  readily  see  the  sun-power  represented  by 
Osiris,  Hercules,  and  the  Apollos  to  have  been  looked 
upon  as  the  forming,  conquering,  and  renovating 
deities  of  the  ancient  world.  The  absence  of  the  sun's 
direct  light  and  actinic  energy  having  formed  the 
Edenic  clime  that  characterized  the  world  in  which  the 
infant  human  race  was  nursed,  it  must  be  plain  that  as 
the  vapors  grew  thinner  in  the  equatorial  regions,  as 
they  spread  toward  the  poles  of  the  earth,  the  sun  came 
gradually  into  view,  and  its  coming  was  the  physical 
agent  in  the  Creator's  hands  in  putting  an  end  to  the 
Eden  climate.  The  sun's  absence  made  Eden,  and 
therefore  his  presence  destroyed  it  and  drove  man  from 
his  genial  home.  We  are  impelled  to  this  conclusion 
by  inexorable  law.  The  solar  orb  then  coming  into 
view  more  fully  as  the  vapors  thinned  away,  and  the 
climate  of  the  Eden  world  growing  colder  necessarily 
at  the  same  time — a  physical  curse  thus  coming  upon 
the  earth — mankind  must  have  looked  upon  the  sun 
as  the  agent  in  the  hands  of  the  supreme  Arbiter,  to 
punish  them  for  their  sins.  In  short,  that  coming  con- 
queror was  looked  upon  as  the  cause  of  the  deluge. 
With  this,  as  the  agent  of  the  Omnipotent  Hand,  in 
the  estimation  of  man  for  punishing  the  wicked,  not 


130  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

only  is  the  darkness  of  mythology  largely  expelled,  but 
the  whole  Edenic  history  is  wonderfully  illuminated. 

Then  when  I  read  the  remarkable  passages  of  Job 
38:  12,  13,  "  Hast  thou  commanded  the  morning,  since 
thy  days;  and  caused  the  day-spring  (sun)  to  know  his 
place;  that  it  might  take  hold  of  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
that  the  wicked  might  be  shaken  out  of  it  ?  "  it  shows 
plainly  to  my  mind  that  the  famous  patriarch  lived 
in  an  age  when  men  believed  the  sun  came  in  to  pun- 
ish the  wicked!  This,  and  several  other  passages,  I 
cannot  now  enlarge  upon,  leave  not  a  doubt  upon  my 
mind,  that  much  of  the  book  of  Job  was  penned  in 
interdiluvian  *  times.  We  are  now  merely  approach- 
ing some  of  the  momentous  conclusions  to  which  the 
annular  theory  must  inevitably  lead.  Conclusions  that 
must  make  sweeping  and  radical  changes  in  opinions, 
as  the  theory  gains  a  place  in  the  philosophic  credence 
of  men. 

*  I  use  the  term  interdiluvian  to  represent  that  period  extend- 
ing from  the  expulsion  of  man  from  Eden,  to  the  final  fall  of  the 
waters  upon  the  earth.  As  it  is  evident  man  was  deprived  of 
his  Eden  clime  by  declining  vapors,  first  in  the  polar  regions, 
this  period  must  have  been  one  of  great  climatical  changes;  in 
fact,  must  have  been  an  interdiluvian  one. 


CHAPTER  VHI. 


OCEANIC    DOWNFALLS    AND    AUGMENTATION    OF    TERRES- 
TKIAL   WATERS. 

A  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  IN  SUPPORT  OF 

THE    CLAIM    THAT    THE    WATERS    OF    THE    OCEAN 

HAVE    BEEN    GREATLY    INCREASED    IN 

VOLUME  IN  VERY  RECENT 

GEOLOGIC   TIME. 

The  reader  must  now  see  there  is  no  possible  escape 
from  the  conclusion  that  if  the  Noachian  waters  fell 
to  the  earth,  as  our  theory  predicates,  there  is  now  a 
greater  volume  of  ocean  on  the  earth  than  before  the 
deluge.  That  the  shores  of  the  ocean  are  further  in- 
land; that  the  estuaries  and  bays,  straits  and  seas  com- 
municating with  the  ocean  are  wider  and  deeper;  and 
further,  that  this  must  be  the  condition  of  the  world 
at  large,  except  where  recent  elevation  has  taken  place. 
If,  then,  it  can  be  shown  that  this  condition  of  the 
oceanic  world  does  obtain,  it  will  be  taken  as  another 
link  of  valuable  evidence.  Again,  when  this  evidence 
is  confronted  by  that  now  universally  held,  that  all  the 
submerged  regions  of  the  earth  merely  sank  and  let 
in  the  waters  of  the  ocean  upon  them;  if  the  unphilo- 
sophic  nature  of  the  claim  can  be  shown,  the  evidence 
becomes  positive  and  conclusive;  for  the  submerged 
tracts  of  the  earth  either  sank  or  the  oceans  have  been 
augmented. 

It  is  true  that  many  portions  have  sunk;  that  some 
parts  of  the  earth  are  sinking  to-day,  and  others  stead- 


132  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ily  rising.  This  phenomenon  must  needs  be,  while 
rivers  bear  their  measureless  burden  to  the  sea;  while 
currents  transport  solid  matter  from  one  part  of  the 
earth  to  another,  and  the  conservation  of  energy  re- 
mains a  fixed  law  in  the  universe.  It  is  calculated 
that  the  solid  matter  annually  carried  down  by  the 
great  Mississippi  is  sufficient  to  cover  640  acres  to  the 
depth  of  240  feet.  This  floated  matter  is  deposited  in 
the  Mexican  Gulf,  or  carried  by  currents  into  the 
adjacent  oceans;  and  we  must  not  forget  that  every 
pound  of  matter  thus  transferred  is  an  energy  trans- 
ferred! In  the  course  of  one  thousand  years,  one 
thousand  square  miles  of  oceanic  bottom  would  be  cov- 
ered 240  feet,  by  an  actual  accumulation,  and  the  un- 
derlying beds  would  support  a  pressure  measured  by 
millions  of  tons.  This  enormous  pressure  upon  the 
underlying  rocks  is  so  much  transferred  energy  con- 
verted into  mechanical  heat.  This  mechanical  heat 
must  of  course,  expand  the  rocks  thus  under  increased 
pressure;  and  as  there  is  apparently  no  measure  of  this 
expansive  force,  what  rock  can  there  be  that  will  not 
yield  to  the  force  exerted?  At  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi the  continued  additions  of  mechanical  pressure 
by  the  constant  deposits,  borne  down  by  the  river,  give 
rise  to  bubbling  and  steaming  hillocks  of  mud, — veri- 
table miniature  volcanoes.  As  increase  of  pressure 
must  give  rise  to  increase  of  heat,  unit  for  unit,  it  is 
plain  that  excessive  increase  of  pressure  must  produce 
corresponding  increase  of  heat.  Is  it  not  a  legitimate 
conclusion,  then,  that  if  all  the  sediment  and  precipi- 
tated matter  carried  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  were  de- 
posited on  its  bottom,  and  not  borne  to  a  great  extent 
into  the  Atlantic,  its  coast  would  be  like  that  of  the 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  133 

Mediterranean  Sea,  lined  with  numerous  mountains  and 
the  scene  of  active  volcanoes? 

The  great  Mediterranean  is  certainly  a  grand  exam- 
ple of  the  conservation  and  transfer  of  energy.  Many 
large  rivers  pour  into  it  from  all  sides,  bearing  such 
enormous  volumes  of  sediment  that  is  not  carried  to  the 
ocean,  but  is  constantly  settling  upon  its  bottom;  and 
the  frequent  and  appalling  eruptions  so  well  known  in 
modern  times,  cannot  but  be  pure  results  thereof  ?  Can 
scientists  find  any  other  vents  than  volcanoes  and  earth- 
quakal  agitations  for  this  force  employed?  It  must 
be  accounted  for.  It  cannot  be  lost.  And  the  ques- 
tion might  well  be  asked:  Can  volcanic  eruptions  have 
any  other  cause  than  that  of  transmitted  or  transferred 
energy?  As  we  look  around  the  globe  and  see  all  its 
volcanoes  located  in  regions  where  transported  sedi- 
ment is  accumulating — i.e.,  in  and  around  the  ocean 
borders,  and  see  that  no  volcanoes  are  located  where 
no  sediment  can  accumulate,  can  we  for  one  moment 
doubt  that  we  have  here  the  true  cause  of  volcanic 
eruptions.  As  the  underlying  rocks  expand  by  the  in- 
crease of  heat,  arising  from  additional  sediments  con- 
tinually gathering  upon  them  in  the  seas,  they  must 
fracture  and  crush  into  neighboring  rocks;  which 
crushing  must  give  rise  to  centers  of  fire  susceptible  of 
fusing  the  beds  around  them.  And  it  is  conceivable 
that  sufficient  sediment  may  gather  over  a  bed  of  rock 
to  liquefy  the  latter.  About  65,000  feet  of  steel  blocks 
piled  one  upon  another  will  give  rise  to  sufficient  heat 
to  melt  the  lowest  blocks,  or  at  least  to  render  them 
plastic.  Hence,  the  reasonable  conclusion  that  the 
lava  that  issues  from  a  volcano  is  the  deep  bed-rock 
fused  by  pressure,  produced  by  lateral  expansion.  Thus 


134  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

we  may  behold  even  here  the  grand  effort  of  solar 
action.  Solar  heat  raises  the  vapor  on  high;  it  falls 
as  rain,  on  hill  and  plain,  swells  into  a  stream,  or  feeds 
a  fountain,  and  gathers  sediment  as  it  runs  through  its 
channel  to  the  sea,  where  it  adds  its  increment  of  me- 
chanical heat  to  fuse  the  rock.  So  that  the  force  em- 
ployed in  the  grandest  volcanic  eruption  ia  the  same 
in  amount  as  that  employed  by  the  sun-beam  in  raising 
that  vapor  from  the  sea  to  the  clouds. 

This  little  digression  will  prepare  the  reader  to  un- 
derstand that  as  sediment  is  continually  accumulating 
in  some  regions,  and  being  removed  from  others,  there 
must  be  rock  expansion  going  on  continually  in  some 
regions,  and  continual  contraction  in  others.  Expan- 
sion must  elevate  the  earth's  crust.  Contraction  must 
lower  it.  The  reader  must  see  that  this  is  law,  and 
must  also  see  herein  an  adequate  cause  for  the  sinking 
of  some  coast  regions,  and  the  elevation  of  others.  It 
is  an  extremely  slow  motion,  which,  arguing  an  ex- 
tremely slow  accumulation  or  diminution  of  mechani- 
cal energy  would  seem  to  point  alone  to  the  cause  here 
supposed. 

But  while  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  ocean's  boun- 
daries such  oscillations  may  occur,  we  surely  could  not 
expect  such  to  obtain  to  any  extent  among  islands  in 
mid-ocean,  or  on  coasts  where  for  many  thousand  miles 
no  rivers  of  importance  exists.  The  elevation  and 
submergence  of  such  coasts  must  be  attributed  to  other 
causes.  Now  the  continents  have  all  been  lifted  from 
the  oceans,  and  can  it  be  possible  that  they  could  be 
raised  to  their  present  position  by  any  other  than  a 
solid  bed  of  intruded  or  expanded  matter.  They  were 
lifted  by  a  force  directed  from  the  oceans,  as  all  will 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  135 

admit.  Did  the  slow  accumulations  of  sediment  ac- 
complish this  grand  result  ?  If  so,  why  was  that  energy 
put  to  work  at  successive  periods,  and  attended  with 
sudden  and  abrupt  changes,  and  extermination  of 
specific  forms?  The  same  force  at  work  to  raise  the 
coast  of  Norway  could  not  lift  a  continent  and  put  eter- 
nal props  under  its  adamantine  sills.  Wherein,  then, 
can  we  find  a  competent  cause  ?  Can  the  annular  theory 
supply  it? 

Let  us  suppose  a  downfall  of  water  at  this  age  should 
raise  the  surface  of  the  ocean  50  feet  above  its  present 
level.  The  reader  will  see  that  every  ton  of  water  thus 
added  to  the  pressure  on  the  ocean's  bed  must  be  con- 
verted into  so  many  units  of  mechanical  heat  in  the 
granite  foundation  of  the  aqueous  beds,  causing  an  ex- 
pansion which  nothing  could  resist,  and  directing  this 
measureless  force  towards  the  continents.  The  only  re- 
sult that  could  take  place  is  evidently  the  forcing  of 
matter,  solid  or  plastic,  from  pressure  under  them,  end- 
ing in  their  elevation ;  or  the  plication  of  their  margins 
into  mountain-folds.  Now  such  things  have  taken 
place  again  and  again  in  the  past  ages  of  this  planet. 
Grand  convulsions,  coupled  with  universal  oceanic  bap- 
tisms, and  change  in  life-organisms,  have  repeatedly 
taken  place;  and  the  up-lift  always  directed  from  the 
ocean.  As  an  installment  of  annular  matter  is  neces- 
sary for  the  baptism;  necessary  for  the  transfer  of  a 
competent  energy;  necessary  for  general  extermina- 
tion of  species,  how  can  we  avoid  the  conclusions  that 
the  oceans  have  many  times  by  immeasurable  addi- 
tions climbed  upon  the  shores  of  the  world? 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  waters  of  the  deluge  re- 
ferred to  in  a  former  chapter,  if  anything  nearly  so  tre- 


136  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

mendous  as  claimed,  must  have  resulted  in  crust-fold- 
ing, or  elevation,  especially  in  the  neighborhoods  where 
great  river  systems  carried  their  detritus  into  the  seas. 
It  surely  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  enumerate  and  spe- 
cialize the  localities  of  the  earth,  well  known  to  the 
geologist,  that  have  in  the  most  recent  geologic  times 
been  lifted  from  the  ocean's  wave,  with  the  shells  of  ex- 
isting species.  The  New  England  coast  was  elevated, 
as  all  know,  many  feet  since  the  last  advance  of  glaciers 
there.  This  being  the  case,  we  must  look  around  us 
for  the  rivers  that  bear  their  burdens  of  continental 
detritus  to  the  seas.  Well,  the  great  St.  Lawrence 
washes  the  feet  of  New  England  on  the  north,  in  a  val- 
ley so  new  that  thousands  of  rock-bound  islands  gem 
its  waters.  So  new,  I  say,  that  it  has  not  yet  swept  its 
channel  clean,  and  must  therefore  have  been  recently 
elevated,  with  its  surroundings,  from  the  sea.  It  is  one 
of  the  mightiest  excavations  of  the  earth.  One  can 
not  look  upon  its  wide  reach  of  flood-ground,  and  lofty 
facades,  and  not  ask,  what  has  became  of  all  the  mat- 
ter borne  from  this  valley  ?  One  comprehensive  glance 
at  the  great  banks  of  Newfoundland  will  answer  the 
question.  And  now  when  we  see  the  thousands  of 
square  miles  of  detrital  offspring  of  the  Hudson's 
waters,  how  can  we  conclude  otherwise  than  that  those 
great  beds  were  the  products  of  diluvial  times?  In 
short,  does  not  everything  seem  to  argue  the  transmis- 
sion of  a  competent  energy  by  an  adequate  cause,  by 
means  of  which  New  England's  recent  elevation  was 
effected?  As  this  phase  of  mountain-making  will  be 
fully  treated  elsewhere  we  will  now  turn  our  attention 
to  the  more  direct  question  of  oceanic  augmentation  in 
modern  times. 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  137 

Suppose  the  reader  could  see  at  one  view  all  the  river 
estuaries  of  the  earth !  Knowing  their  delta  approaches 
to  have  been  built  up  by  enormous  accumulations  of 
detritus,  forming  in  many  instances,  as  in  the  cases  of 
the  Mississippi,  the  Nile  and  the  Ganges,  beds  several 
hundreds  of  feet  thick;  and  knowing,  too,  that  the  same 
sedimentary  deposits  are  being  made  at  the  outlets  of 
rivers,  emptying  into  inland  lakes,  we  can  readily  un- 
derstand that  there  must  be  a  difference  in  the  appear- 
ance and  character  of  lacustrine  deltas  and  estuaries, 
when  compared  with  those  of  the  oceanic  borders.  Let 
us  examine  the  great  Lakes  of  North  America,  empty- 
ing through  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  ocean.  It  is 
readily  seen  that  the  waters  in  these  lakes  cannot 
rise  permanently  while  their  present  channels  of  out- 
let remain;  that  however  abundant  the  additions  to 
their  waters,  so  long  as  river  erosion  continues,  these 
lakes  must  grow  more  shallow  with  the  flow  of  cen- 
turies; that  in  a  few  thousand  years  cities  now 
planted  upon  their  shores  must  become  inland  towns, 
unless  they  follow  the  receding  waters.  This  reces- 
sion of  lake  waters,  and  falling  of  the  lake  level  in  the 
region  referred  to,  have  been  going  on  for  unknown 
time.  But  it  must  be  seen  that  as  the  waters  fall,  the 
pitch  or  decline  of  the  river  current,  as  it  enters  the 
lake,  must  also  increase  and  follow  them;  so  that  in 
course  of  time  the  river's  course  through  a  lacustrine 
delta,  would  be  between  walls  continually  increasing  in 
height.  How  emphatically  true  this  is  of  the  lakes  of 
all  the  earth,  I  need  not  say.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of 
observation,  which  every  one  can  verify.  And  the 
question  here  maintained  is  then  apparent : — the  reces- 


138  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

sion  of  waters  from  an  estuary  deepens  the  channel  and 
increases  the  pitch  and  flow  of  a  river  current. 

The  high  sand  banks  contiguous  to  the  lake  estuaries 
of  this  country,  which  many  of  my  readers  must  have 
noticed,  simply  prove  that  the  lake  level  has  fallen. 
Then,  again,  we  must  see  that  if  the  level  of  the  lake 
waters  should  be  elevated,  the  results  would  be  just  the 
reverse.  The  pitch  of  estuary  currents  would  decrease; 
the  mural  escarpments  of  river  courses  would  decrease 
in  height  and  the  delta  formation  become  one  level 
expanse  of  detrital  accumulations.  We  may  now  apply 
a  decisive  test  to  the  river  deltas  on  the  oceanic  bor- 
ders of  the  world.  In  the  search  of  twenty  years  I 
have  been  unable  to  find  an  oceanic  delta,  with  its  ac- 
companying estuary,  that  possesses  the  lacustrine  char- 
acteristic of  increasing  pitch.  Where  the  land  has 
been  elevated  so  as  to  show  walls  and  deep  delta  chan- 
nels at  the  mouths  of  rivers  there  are  features  which 
the  keen  eye  of  the  geologist  may  readily  see,  as  strik- 
ingly different  from  those  in  lake  regions.  The  eleva- 
tion of  a  river  mouth  throws  a  volume  of  water  back 
upon  itself,  and  the  deposit  is  no  longer  the  same  as 
before.  All  the  great  rivers  of  the  earth  present,  how- 
ever, the  very  same  appearance,  we  would  find,  as 
stated  above,  in  a  lake  delta  and  estuary,  whose  water 
level  was  elevated  by  an  increase  of  the  volume  of 
water.  It  is  the  rarest  circumstance  to  find  a  river  of 
much  importance  flowing  with  a  rapid  rush  of  waters 
into  the  sea.  There  is  a  wide  expanse  of  land  scarcely 
above  the  sea  level,  washed  daily  by  the  tides,  and  the 
river  flows  lazily  along  continually  dropping  its  load  of 
sediment.  No  river  bluffs.  Almost  every  sign  of 
channel  or  river  escarpments  has  been  obliterated,  if 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  139 

such  ever  existed.  Why  is  this  so  universally  the  case  ? 
It  simply  proves  that  land  elevation  at  the  mouths  of 
rivers  is  exceedingly  rare.  It  proves  that  while  the 
accumulations  of  sediment,  or  delta  deposits,  are  con- 
tinually pushing  the  wave  oceanwards,  by  the  growth 
of  land  area,  the  level  of  the  oceanic  waters  has  been 
elevated  in  modern  geologic  times,  so  as  to  obliterate 
channels  and  walls  that  must  inevitably  grow  in  the 
lapse  of  ages,  at  river  mouths.  For,  with  a  call  cease- 
less as  the  flow  of  time,  and  with  an  appetite  as  in- 
satiate as  death,  the  hungry  earth  is  absorbing  its 
waters. 

The  problem,  then,  is  reduced  to  this:  Either  the 
oceanic  waters  have  been  augmented  in  volume,  by  ad- 
ditions thereto,  in  modern  geologic  times;  or,  the  land 
at  the  outlets  of  almost  all  the  rivers  of  the  globe  has 
been  sunk.  Which  of  these  is  the  more  probable  ?  Nay, 
can  it  be  possible,  that  so  nearly  all  the  oceanic  deltas 
of  the  earth  could  present  the  actual  appearance  of  an 
increase  of  oceanic  waters,  unless  such  an  increase  had 
taken  place  ?  If  these  deltas,  even  to  a  limited  extent, 
exhibited  the  inclination  due  to  local  elevation,  we 
might  calculate  between  the  probabilities  of  land  de- 
pression and  emergence;  but  when  it  is  all  depression, 
there  can  be  no  probabilities,  and  certainties  only  come 
within  the  purview  of  our  calculations. 

Again,  look  at  the  great  Pacific,  studded  with  island 
gems,  that  are,  as  is  well  known,  the  summits  of  moun- 
tains submerged.  Here  are  millions  of  square  miles 
of  submerged  lands,  as  proven  by  coraline  formations,* 

* "  A  Melbourne  journal  describes  a  remarkable  piece  of  coral 
taken  from  the  submarine  cable  near  Port  Darwin.  It  is  of  the 
ordinary  species,  about  five  inches  in  height,  six  inches  in  diam- 
eter at  the  top,  and  about  two  inches  at  the  base.  It  is  perfectly 


140  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

that  have  in  modern  geologic  times  succumbed  to 
oceanic  inroads  (i.e.,  oceanic  elevation),  and  which 
would  to-day  be  a  grand  continent  peopled  by  indus- 
trious millions,  and  covered  by  luxuriant  tropical 
vegetation,  if  its  waters  could  be  lowered  to  the  extent 
of  80  or  100  fathoms.  Then  when  we  turn  to  the  east- 
ern coast  of  North  America,  we  find  a  vast  region  of 
coast-line  just  submerged,  and  glean  from  the  "  Coast 
Survey  "  the  remarkable  fact  that  from  Nova  Scotia 
to  Florida,  and  from  Florida  around  the  whole  boun- 
dary of  the  Mexican  Gulf,  there  are  the  submerged 
shore-lines  of  a  former  continent,  far  out  from  the  pres- 
ent shore.  That  for  nearly  the  entire  extent  of  many 
thousands  of  miles  of  coast,  these  shallow  waters  of 
about  30  or  40  fathoms  deep,  roll  shoreward  from  the 
mighty  depth  of  the  ocean.  Beyond  this  actually  known 
and  surveyed  ancient  shore-line,  now  from  80  to  100 
fathoms  under  water,  the  lead  and  line  plunges  sudden- 
ly to  a  depth  of  200,  400,  1,000  or  1,500  fathoms. 
From  the  British  coast-survey  we  learn  that  the  British 
Islands  are  surrounded  by  the  same  character  of  coasts, 
a  mere  playground  for  waves.  Gradually  the  waters 
deepen  from  the  present  shore  ocean-ward,  until  we  sud- 
denly arrive  at  the  old  coast-line  beyond  which  lies  the 
abyssal  deep.*  The  German  ocean  and  the  Norwegian 
waters  are  so  shallow  that  if  they  were  lowered  30  or 

formed,  and  the  base  bears  the  distinct  impress  of  the  cable,  and 
a  few  fibers  of  the  coil  rope  used  as  a  sheath  for  the  telegraphic 
wires  still  adhering  to  it.  As  the  cable  has  been  laid  only  four 
years  it  is  evident  that  this  specimen  must  have  grown  to  its 
present  height  in  that  time,  which  seems  to  prove  that  the 
growth  of  coral  is  much  more  rapid  than  has  been  supposed." 

*  For  the  first  100  miles  out  from  New  Jersey  the  ocean  deep- 
ens only  three  feet  a  mile,  or  300  feet  in  all,  while  18  miles 
farther  out  the  water  is  6,000  feet  deep,  and  250  miles  out  is 
2y2  miles  deep. 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  141 

40  fathoms  they  would  expose  a  vast  stretch  of  level 
continent  on  the  northwest  of  Europe.  The  whole 
coast  of  northern  Europe  and  Asia  presents  the  same 
characteristics.  When  we  turn  to  the  waters  washing 
the  eastern  shores  of  Asia  we  find  the  same;  and  wher- 
ever the  southern  shore  has  been  surveyed  from  60  to 
100  miles  from  land,  throughout  the  whole  coast  from 
Java  to  the  Gulf  of  Aden,  we  find  the  same  shallow 
oceanic  water;  and  beyond  its  boundary,  the  deep  ocean. 
Turning  again  to  North  America,  from  Columbia  River 
to  Behring's  Strait  we  find  shallow  ocean.  From  the 
Columbia  River  southward  to  Cape  Horn,  I  have  but 
little  information  respecting  the  character  of  the  sea 
bottom;  but  from  many  places  come  authentic  informa- 
tion that  the  Pacific  waters  now  roll  over  submerged 
forests  near  the  shores.  The  same  kind  of  reports  are 
heard  from  the  Atlantic  coasts  of  South  America  and 
Africa. 

But  most  fortunately  we  have  information  that  none 
will  dispute  from  the  very  midst  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
many  portions  of  which  have  been  surveyed  and 
mapped.  The  U.  S.  sloop  Gettysburg  several  years 
ago,  when  about  300  miles  west  of  Gibraltar,  anchored 
where  the  sounding  line  revealed  a  depth  of  only  32 
fathoms.  The  British  ship  Challenger  and  the  U.  S. 
ship  Dolphin  have  traced  the  course  of  a  submerged 
continent  in  mid-ocean,  and  seem  to  have  demonstrated 
the  former  existence  of  a  long  insular  continent,  nearly 
mid-way  between  the  two  existing  continents,  and  run- 
ning nearly  parallel  with  the  general  trend  of  the  At- 
lantic Ocean.  The  character  of  the  deeply  cut  and 
channeled  bed  of  these  mid-ocean  ridges  shows  that  they 
were  in  recent  geologic  times  subject  to  aerial  denuda- 
tion. 


142  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

Thus  it  seems  there  is  an  abundant  evidence,  so  far  as 
we  are  able  to  glean  from  the  physical  testimony  of 
the  universal  oceans,  that  its  waters,  the  world  over, 
stand  higher  to-day  upon  the  shores  of  the  continents 
than  they  formerly  did, — than  they  did  in  recent  geo- 
logical times !  How  can  we  conclude  otherwise  ?  Can 
it  be  possible  that  during  the  same  age  the  great 
Pacific  continent  covering  millions  of  square  miles  was 
submerged;  the  whole  Atlantic  bed;  the  Indian  Ocean, 
and  the  North  Polar  seas,  should  all  climb  from  30  to 
40  fathoms  upon  the  shores,  because  of  a  subsidence 
of  the  land  alone  ?  When  Behring's  Strait  was  made 
to  connect  the  polar  waters  with  the  Pacific;  when  the 
Strait  of  Dover  separated  England  from  the  continent 
of  Europe;  when  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  connected  the 
Atlantic  with  the  Mediterranean,  the  oceans  either  in- 
creased in  volume  or  the  continents  sank.  And  when 
we  know  that  every  drop  of  the  immense  oceans  that 
now  wash  the  shores  of  the  world,  has  actually  fallen 
to  the  earth's  surface  since  its  igneous  era  closed,  and 
since  the  very  pointing  of  eternal  law,  from  whatever 
field  we  may  view  them,  shows  that  these  oceans  may 
have  fallen  in  terrific  and  overwhelming  cataclysms 
through  the  measureless  lapse  of  ages,  and  not  all  in 
primitive  times,  why  should  we  be  slow  to  admit  the 
grand  and  philosophic  thought,  that  recent  geologic 
times  closed  with  a  vast  augmentation  of  the  waters  of 
the  earth?  Most  impressively  is  this  consideration 
forced  upon  us,  as  we  turn  to  the  records  of  the  gla- 
ciated continents,  and  reflect  upon  the  immensity  of 
the  snow-fields  that  filled  the  valleys  of  almost  every 
land,  till  the  face  of  the  planet  gleamed  in  universal 
ice.  And  when  we  take  one  step  further  in  the  inves- 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  143 

tigation,  and  find  that  the  closing  of  the  glacial  period 
was  the  commencement  of  modern  oceanic  inroads; 
that  the  oceans  climbed  up  the  shores  as  the  glaciers 
melted  away;  and  further  find  that  terrific  deluges  of 
water  were  urged  for  unknown  time  down  the  innumer- 
able valleys  of  the  earth,  there  seems  to  be  no  foothold 
for  skepticism  on  this  point. 

I  will  now  collate  some  interesting  facts  relative  to 
this  phase  of  the  annular  theory,  some  of  which  have 
been  presented  by  well-known  authors  and  scholars. 
(From  Geikie's  "Ice  Age,"  page  91.)  "From  these 
and  similar  facts  geologists  have  been  inclined  to  infer 
that  at  the  time  the  mer  de  glace  covered  Scotland  the 
whole  of  our  country  (Britain)  stood  at  a  higher  level 
relative  to  the  sea  than  now;  in  other  words,  that  a 
large  part  of  what  in  these  days  forms  the  floor  of  the 
sea  was  at  that  time  in  the  condition  of  dry  land." 

Again  (same  page),  "  The  German  Ocean  between 
England  and  the  coast  of  France,  and  the  Netherlands, 
does  not  average  more  than  some  150  or  160  feet  in 
depth;  and  the  soundings  show  that  the  water  deepens 
very  gradually  northwards." 

And  while  we  are  considering  this  part  of  the  geo- 
logical field,  we  will  examine  some  further  evidence  of 
oceanic  elevation.  Submerged  peat-beds  containing 
trees  and  trunks  of  oak,  pine,  hickory,  walnut,  etc.,  are 
witnesses  of  recent  advance  of  oceanic  waters.  These 
are  found  in  abundance  around  the  coasts  of  England, 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  not  only  in  connection  with  the 
main  land,  but  in  the  small  outlying  islands  of  the  Brit- 
ish seas.  (Geikie,  pp.  294  and  295.)  (See  also  Sin- 
clair's Acct.,  vol.  xvi,  p.  556.) 

On  the  Frith  of  Tay  are  larger  tracts  of  submerged 


144  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

peat-moss,  containing  hazel-nut  and  alder,  many  feet 
below  full  tide.  (Edin.  Hog.  Soc.  Trans.,  vol.  ix,  p. 
419.)  The  same  are  found  on  the  shores  of  Tirce  and 
Coll.  (Edin.  Jour.  Phil,  vol.  vii,  p.  125.  They  are 
found  in  abundance  on  the  northern  coast  of  the  con- 
tinent, from  France  to  Denmark  and  Sweden.  Sub- 
merged forests  abound  along  the  coasts  of  Brittany, 
Normandy,  and  the  Channel  Islands,  as  well  as  off  the 
shores  of  Holland,  and  also  on  the  Alaskan  and  Siberian 
shores. 

Can  we  come  to  any  other  reasonable  conclusion  than 
that  the  northeast  Atlantic  and  the  German  Ocean 
have  largely  augmented  their  domain,  in  comparatively 
recent  times?  We  have  reports  of  submerged  forests 
on  the  wide  circuit  of  the  ocean  world.  Scarcely  any 
considerable  part  of  the  globe  whose  boundaries  lie  by 
sea,  does  not  exhibit  some  such  evidence. 

Captain  Herandeen,  who  spent  many  years  on  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  has  given  some  interesting  and  valuable 
evidence  in  regard  to  the  great  insular  continent  that 
now  sleeps  under  its  waters.  I  draw  briefly  from  one 
of  his  narratives:  "But  there  is  other  evidence  which 
is  more  interesting,  because  it  relates  to  the  great  decay 
of  a  great  race  of  people  that  once  inhabited  the  region. 
A  few  years  ago  I  stopped  at  Pouynipete  Island,  in  the 
Pacific,  in  east  longitude  158°  22'  and  north  latitude 
60°  50'.  The  island  is  surrounded  by  a  reef,  with  a 
broad  ship  channel  between  it  and  the  island. 

"  At  places  in  the  reef  there  were  natural  breaks  that 
served  as  entrances  to  the  harbors.  In  these  ship- 
channels  there  were  a  number  of  islands,  many  of 
which  were  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  stone  five  or  six 
feet  high,  and  on  those  islands  there  stood  a  great  many 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  145 

low  houses  built  of  the  same  kind  of  stone  as  the  walls 
about  them.  These  structures  seem  to  have  been  used 
as  temples  and  forts.  The  singular  feature  of  these 
islands  is  that  the  walls  are  a  foot  or  more  below  the 
water.  When  they  were  built  they  were  evidently 
above  the  water  and  connected  with  the  main-land,  but 
they  have  gradually  sunk  until  the  sea  has  risen  a  foot 
or  more  around  them.  The  natives  on  the  islands  do 
not  know  when  these  works  were  built;  it  is  so  far  back 
in  the  past  that  they  have  even  no  tradition  of  the  struc- 
tures. Yet  the  works  show  great  signs  of  skill,  and 
certainly  prove  that  whoever  built  them  knew  thor- 
oughly how  to  transport  and  lift  heavy  blocks  of  stone. 
Up  in  the  mountains  of  the  island  there  is  a  quarry  of 
the  same  kind  of  stone  that  was  used  in  building  the 
wall  about  the  islands,  and  in  that  quarry  to-day  there 
are  great  blocks  of  stone  that  have  been  hewn  out  ready 
for  transportation.  The  natives  are  in  greater  ignor- 
ance of  the  phenomena  that  are  going  on  about  them 
than  the  white  man  who  touches  on  their  island  for  a 
few  hours  for  water.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind 
that  the  island  was  once  inhabited  by  an  intelligent  race 
of  people,  who  built  the  temples  and  forts  of  heavy 
masonry  on  the  high  bluffs  of  the  shore  of  the  island, 
and  that  as  the  land  gradually  subsided  these  bluffs  be- 
came islands.  They  stand  to-day  with  a  solid  wall  of 
stone  around  them,  partly  submerged  in  water." 

Thus  we  not  only  meet  with  the  strongest  evidence 
that  the  waters  have  arisen  on  the  shores  of  the  con- 
tinents, severing  in  numberless  instances  islands  from 
the  main  land,  as  England  from  Europe,  and  the  West 
Indies  from  the  American  continent,  but  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  oceans  we  find  the  same  testimony  in  im- 


146  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

perishable  monuments.  How  often  has  this  aged  world 
of  ours  been  shaken  by  the  mightiest  revulsions !  How 
many  races  similar  to  man,  the  masterpiece  of  the 
Creator,  have  felt  the  blow  of  inexorable  fate ! — races 
of  sentient  beings  that  may  have  lived  amid  the  flour- 
ish of  empires,  and  the  shock  of  death,  till  swept  as  by  a 
stroke  from  the  earth,  before  the  Adamite  or  Edenic 
man  came  upon  the  scene.  Here,  blocks  hewn  from 
the  mountain  quarry  have  significant  meaning.  Left 
in  confusion  they  argue  that  the  workmen  were  sud- 
denly driven  from  the  quarry,  just  as  in  many  other 
cases  in  other  parts  of  the  earth.  The  ancient  copper 
mines  of  Lake  Superior,  in  several  instances,  show  that 
the  old  miners  that  used  the  flint  and  other  stone  im- 
plements, were  suddenly  swept  from  their  place  of 
work,  never  to  return.  Their  axes>  hammers,  wedges, 
etc.,  left  lying  around  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and  cov- 
ered with  flood-detritus  in  deep  excavation,  tell  an  un- 
mistakable tale  of  sudden  and  violent  catastrophe. 

All  over  the  ocean  world  then — where  rivers  empty 
their  waters;  where  inlets  lie  embosomed  in  forest  and 
rock;  where  straits  separate  mighty  continents,  and 
connect  ocean  with  ocean,  and  sea  with  sea;  where 
islands  rise  from  the  restless  wave,  in  the  very  midst  of 
boundless  oceans;  wherever  we  may  chance  to  turn  our 
gaze  upon  the  watery  world, — we  see,  it  seems  to  me, 
the  most  surprising  evidence  that  the  earth's  waters 
have  been  greatly  augmented  in  modern  times.  Tell 
me,  what  else  could  have  raised  the  waters  so  generally 
over  the  earth  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that  the  vast  expanse  of 
the  Pacific  continent  subsiding,  would  have  drawn  such 
vast  volumes  of  water  from  the  shores  of  other  con- 
tinents, that  rivers  would  be  free  to  pour  their  waters 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  147 

with  rapid  flow  into  the  sea  ?  Dana  says  the  sunken 
continent  of  the  Pacific  is  6,000  miles  long,  and  from 
1,200  to  2,000  miles  broad,  and  makes  out  that  it  has 
sunk  more  than  3,000  feet.  If  we  make  this  less  by 
100  times,  we  must  even  then,  by  some  means,  find  a 
source  for  those  waters  which  again  filled  the  estuaries 
after  they  were  drained  by  the  ocean's  sinking  bed. 
We  cannot  conceive  of  such  an  enormous  area  of  sea 
bottom,  sinking  even  to  the  extent  of  a  single  foot,  with- 
out increasing  the  rapidity  of  the  flow  of  river  waters 
at  their  outlets.  But  where,  on  the  wide  face  of  the 
earth,  do  we  see  this  to  be  the  case  ?  Since  we  see  the 
reverse  to  be  almost  the  universal  rule,  it  seems  to  me 
we  are  simply  compelled  to  admit  that  the  ocean's 
waters  have  climbed  upon  the  shores  of  all  the  conti- 
nents. Now  the  fact  that  such  coasts  as  those  of  Nor- 
way and  Sweden  and  some  islands  in  the  North  Pacific 
have  been  elevated  in  modern  times  does  not  in  the 
least  oppose  these  ideas;  for  the  fact  that  we  are  able 
to  prove  that  they  have  been  elevated  from  the  sea, 
only  proves  that  they,  too,  were  submerged,  increasing 
the  necessity  of  admitting  the  fact  of  oceanic  augmenta- 
tion. 

What,  then,  does  that  buried  continent  prove  ?  Does 
it  not  prove  that  a  mighty  deluge  did  desolate  the 
earth?  And  as  it  is  a  fact  which  every  one  is  forced 
to  admit,  that  in  the  Noachian  period  a  vast  deluge  of 
waters  did  come  from  beyond  the  region  of  clouds  and 
rains,  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  ocean's 
volume  was  then  increased. 

Now  let  me  ask  the  reader,  what  conclusion  must  we 
draw  from  the  array  of  facts  now  before  us  ?  Did  the 
primitive  vapors  return  to  the  earth  as  they  condensed 


148  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

in  primitive  times,  contrary  to  law  universal  and  un- 
changeable ?  Is  it  not  within  the  conception  of  every 
one,  that  if  all  the  waters  of  the  earth  fell  on  the 
archsean  sphere,  then  there  never  was  a  deluge?  That 
there  never  were  waters  above  the  firmament  ?  That 
the  sun  came  into  view  in  primitive  times  ?  That  con- 
sequently there  never  was  a  day  of  physical  rest;  nor 
a  day  when  it  did  not  rain,  nor  a  time  when  man  dwelt 
naked  on  earth;  nor  an  Eden  clime?  Then  the  rain- 
bow was  a  common  occurrence  in  all  times,  and  can  in 
no  sense  be  a  token  of  God's  promise  to  man.  Then 
man  always  lived  in  this  present  environment,  and  his 
days  were  always  three  score  and  ten  years.  In  short, 
the  whole  Edenic  narrative  becomes  one  meaningless 
tissue  of  contradictions,  beyond  the  pale  of  law.  If 
the  waters  of  the  earth  were  not  increased  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  human  race,  what  can  the  first  eight 
chapters  of  Genesis  mean  ?  Refuse  to  admit  this  philo- 
sophic necessity,  and  we  are  plunged  into  the  darkness 
of  midnight.  Ineffable  harmony  and  beauty  becomes 
hideous  disorder  and  deformity.  And  now  when  we 
take  a  comprehensive  glance  at  the  seas  of  the  earth, 
and  can  find  but  one  grand  chain  of  evidence  in  support 
of  "upper  waters;"  in  short,  as  we  find  the  globe  to- 
day one  marvelous  and  comprehensive  argument,  in  de- 
fense of  Edenic  history, — an  argument  which  is  the 
voice  of  law;  I  must  say,  with  emphasis,  the  earth's  an- 
nular system  was  a  physical  and  necessary  fact. 

We  started  on  our  tour  of  investigation  with  the  in- 
fant earth  wrapped  in  the  swaddling  garments  of 
flame,  and  rocked  in  the  cradle  of  primitive  fire.  Meas- 
ureless cycles  rolled  away,  and  then  we  saw  the  youth- 
ful orb  flying  through  space,  a  glowing  and  vitalizing 


Oceanic  Downfalls.  149 

sun.  Revolving  around  the  eternal  throne  of  implacable 
law,  as  its  fires  smouldered  away  its  oceans  gathered 
around  it.  Away  down  the  vistas  of  time  we  see  plans 
perfected.  The  world  unfolds  at  the  beck  of  Deity. 
Man,  the  masterpiece  of  the  Omnipotent  Designer, 
familiar  by  actual,  contact  and  knowledge  with  the 
great  canopy  of  vapors,  has  sent  down  to  us  a  most 
faithful  and  inexpressibly  harmonious  history.  The 
rock-bound  records  confirm  its  details.  The  ocean 
unites  with  the  inevitable  verdict,  and  the  annular 
theory  stands  a  citadel  of  rock.  We  have  proven  it 
first  by  mathematical  reasoning  and  philosophic  neces- 
sity. Then  we  have  proven  it  by  the  mineral  character 
and  philosophic  disposition  of  strata.  And  again 
we  have  proven  it  by  analogous  facts  relating  to  our 
sister  worlds,  belted  and  ringed  under  the  reign  of  law. 
Then,  again,  we  have  proven  it  by  the  action  of  our 
own  satellite.  Then  we  have  taken  the  records  of  man, 
rude  and  mysterious,  and  have  shown  by  the  very  na- 
ture of  those  ancient  writings  that  they  declare  and  re- 
declare,  again  and  again,  the  truth  of  my  claim.  So 
that  if  all  other  evidence  were  cast  aside,  if  all  the 
demonstrations,  and  doubly  riveted  links  of  testimony 
before  adduced,  were  entirely  left  out  of  the  argument, 
the  first  eight  chapters  of  Genesis  alone  afford  a  proof 
so  abundant  and  positive  that  no  sane  man,  it  seems  to 
me,  can  for  a  moment  doubt  that  they  are  a  true  and 
faithful  delineation  of  the  earth's  annular  appendage. 

What  kind  of  a  chain  of  evidence  have  we  then,  with 
all  these  witnesses  testifying  to  the  same  thing?  And 
after  we  have  so  firmly  established  this  thing;  when  we 
examine  the  waters  on  the  earth  and  find  that  they  bear 
witness  to  the  same  thing  in  such  a  way  as  to  become 


150  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

a  demonstration  in  themselves,  surely  my  readers  will 
pardon  the  egotism :  I  have  proven  so  far  as  positive  evi- 
dence can  prove  anything,  that  this  earth  had  an  annu- 
lar appendage  from  the  remotest  period  of  archsean 
time,  through  the  ages  to  the  days  of  Noah. 

Now  if  the  reader  choose  he  may  cast  all  this  evi- 
dence aside,  and  we  will  begin  a  new  series  of  demon- 
strations. He  may  throw  away  every  page  of  testimony 
I  have  given,  and  I  will  prove  the  same  great  truth  to 
him  by  testimony  from  other  fields  of  investigation. 
We  have  scarcely  entered  the  field.  Our  work  has  just 
begun. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SOME  TOPOGRAPHICAL   FEATURES   THAT   PEOVE  THE 
DECLENSION  OF  EXTEBIOK  MATTEB. 

It  must  be  admitted  by  all  who  concede  the  truth 
of  the  nebular  hypothesis,  by  all  who  admit  that  this 
planet  was  ever  in  a  state  of  igneous  fusion,  that  the 
mass  composing  the  great  ocean  of  primitive  vapors 
that  surrounded  it  was  impregnated  with  vast  quan- 
tities of  elementary  mineral  and  metallic  matter.  This 
is  so  evident  that  I  need  do  nothing  more  now  than  call 
the  reader's  attention  to  it.  I  also  need  but  call  his 
attention  to  the  fact  that  when  the  upper  waters,  or 
vapors,  with  their  associated  matter,  fell  to  the  earth, 
they  must  have  made  temporary  seas,  lakes  and  ponds, 
etc.,  in  all  parts  of  the  earth  where  they  fell.  The 
narrow  channels  of  thousands  of  rivers  could  not  permit 
the  mighty  floods  to  immediately  retire.  In  those 
lakes  and  seas  would  be  deposited  the  precipitates  and 
exotic  solid  matter  of  the  annular  waters,  and  especially 
so  in  regions  beyond  the  tropics;  and  the  nearer  we  ap- 
proach the  polar  regions,  the  more  abundantly  we 
would  find  this  exotic  matter.  This  must  be  essen- 
tinally  the  case,  if  there  be  a  polarwise  tendency  to  de- 
clining belts,  etc.  But  what  kind  of  precipitates  must 
we  expect  to  find?  Let  us  determine  this  matter 
before  we  search  for  it.  First  and  most  important  of 
all  the  elements  of  the  earth's  crust  is  carbon.  Of  the 
sixty  thousand  feet  of  aqueous  beds  there  is  probably 
none  of  which  this  element  does  not  form  an  important 
constituent.  Hence  we  have  no  possible  means  of 


152  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

escaping  the  conclusion  that  the  earth's  primitive  atmos- 
phere,— largely  the  products  of  igneous  action, — con- 
tained vast  quantities  of  carbon  sublimed  or  distilled 
in  the  earth's  glowing  crucible.  Let  the  reader  see, 
before  he  proceeds  farther,  that  we  are  irretrievably 
committed  to  this  conclusion.  As  it  would  be  an  utter 
impossibility  for  this  earth  to  be  now  reduced  to  a 
molten  condition  without  sending  up  an  immensity  of 
unconsumed  carbon,  in  the  form  of  smoke,  so  it  must 
be  a  settled  and  absolute  fact  that  the  primitive  burn- 
ing earth,  from  the  very  day  it  became  the  seat  of  fiery 
fusion,  repelled  from  its  heated  bosom,  and  held  in  sus- 
pension, unconsumed  carbon  or  smoke.  Every  chem- 
ist familiar  even  with  the  rudiments  of  his  science,  will 
tell  us  this  must  have  been  the  case.  To  conclude 
otherwise  would  force  the  admission  that  the  primitive 
atmosphere  was  an  ocean  of  oxygen,  which  simply  could 
not  have  been  the  case.  Hence  we  are  driven  to  this 
unavoidable  end.*  The  primitive  earth  was  a  burning 
world,  and  therefore  a  smoking  world,  and  that  uncon- 
sumed carbon  commingled  with  the  annular  vapors 
just  as  it  would  to-day,  in  the  form  of  black,  sooty, 
pitchy  matter.  As  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
unconsumed  carbon  was  mechanically  combined  with 
the  upper  vapors,  so  also  we  are  made  to  admit  that  it 
mingled  with  them  in  the  form  of  soot.  Can  the 
reader  find  a  flaw  in  these  statements?  But  if  this 
sooty,  carbonaceous  matter  mingled  with  the  exterior 

*  All  the  matter  composing  the  earth  fell  to  it,  either  before 
aqueous  attrition  began,  or  afterwards,  or  partly  before  and 
partly  afterwards.  Then  all  the  matter  composing  the  aqueous 
crust  fell  to  the  earth  in  the  later  stages  of  its  evolution.  What 
reason,  then,  can  be  urged  against  the  fall  of  the  tellurio-cosmic 
matter  being  continued  all  through  the  geologic  ages,  at  the  same 
time  that  aqueous  denudation  went  on? 


Some  Topographical  Features.  153 

vapors,  then  they  fell  in  company.  And  the  waters 
that  stood  in  "  seas,"  "  lakes,"  "  ponds,"  etc.,  at  the 
time  of  the  deluge,  deposited  this  carbon  as  a  layer  of 
black  carbonaceous  mud  upon  their  bottoms;  for  we 
cannot  admit  that  even  the  last  remnants  of  the  annular 
waters  were  not  associated  therewith,  just  as  the  belts 
of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  are  darkened  by  such  sooty  mat- 
ter to-day.  Now  we  may  see  some  meaning  in  some  of 
the  flood  legends,  which  declare  that  the  waters  of  the 
deluge  were  a  "  pitchy  blackness." 

If,  then,  we  succeed  in  finding  this  black  carbona- 
ceous matter  at  the  bottom  of  inland  seas,  lakes,  etc.,  or 
spread  out  over  extensive  plains,  that  were  formerly 
covered  by  standing  water,  we  must  see  a  wonderful 
dovetailing  of  facts,  that  add  strength  to  our  theory. 
I  hold  such  deposits  must  be  found  in  order  that  the 
theory  be  fully  vindicated.  I  have  no  need  to  tell 
geologists  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of  lakes,  planted  in 
the  drift  deposits  of  North  America  and  Northern 
Europe,  whose  bottoms  are  known  to  consist  largely  of 
the  very  carbon  we  need  to  find  to  sustain  our  views. 
Hundreds  of  them  have  been  drained  in  Northern  Ohio 
and  in  Michigan  and  other  States,  some  for  agricultural 
purposes,  some  in  the  construction  of  canals  and  rail- 
roads, and  almost  invariably  they  present  the  same  feat- 
ures. Many  of  these  ponds  that  I  have  personally  exam- 
ined had  no  vegetation,  and  therefore  the  carbon  could 
not  have  been  a  peat  formation.  While  those  which  had 
been  converted  into  swamps,  and  covered  with  peat- 
growth,  had  the  peat  formation  underlain  by  the  primi- 
tive carbon  which  everywhere  presents  its  own  charac- 
teristics. These  things  are  subjects  of  ocular  demon- 
stration, which  any  one  can  verify  for  himself.  There 


154  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

are  more  than  ten  thousand  ponds  and  lakelets  in  Min- 
nesota alone,  and  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn 
from  them,  they  abundantly  support  the  claim  here 
made.  They  are  found  in  many  parts  of  northern  In- 
diana, Illinois  and  Iowa,  where  I  have  personally  ex- 
amined some  of  them,  and  find  the  same  evidence.  A 
layer  of  black  carbonaceous  mud  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
the  lakes  that  have  been  thus  far  explored, — carbon 
that  cannot  be  called  peat !  and  since  there  can  be  but 
one  other  source,  its  origin  is  apparent. 

I  suppose  there  are  but  few  of  my  readers  who  are 
not  aware  of  the  fact  that  a  black  carbonaceous  soil  is 
the  superficial  covering  of  many  of  the  northern  and 
northwestern  States, — a  coating  of  exceedingly  black, 
soot-like  matter,  strikingly  different  from  that  of  the 
adjacent  States.  Now  since  it  is  well-known  to  geolo- 
gists that  all  this  region  thus  overlain  was  once  the  bed 
of  a  vast  inland  sea,  covering  more  than  half  a  million 
square  miles;  in  the  eyes  of  the  geologists  at  least,  we 
have  one  feature  established  that  points  to  a  deposit 
of  light,  primitive  carbon  from  on  high — viz.,  the  fact 
that  a  sea  existed,  which  was  necessary  for  its  distri- 
bution and  deposition.  But  as  these  pages  are  intended 
for  all  readers,  my  next  duty  evidently  is  to  prove  that 
such  a  sea  did  exist,  and  then  to  prove  that  the  super- 
ficial covering  is  a  deposit  of  annular  soot. 

Again,  let  us  see  that  we  start  with  known  and  uni- 
versally admitted  premises.  On  the  west  of  this  great 
basin  rises  the  mighty  wall  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  since  the  close  of  the  tertiary  age  it  has  been  a 
great  divide  between  the  waters  running  westward  and 
those  running  eastward.  Between  the  waters  of  the 
Arkansas  and  those  of  the  Missouri,  is  another  divide 


Some  Topographical  Features.  155 

running  eastward  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  through 
southern  Kansas,  and  abruptly  terminating  at  the  Mis- 
sissippi River,  as  the  spurs  of  the  Ozark  Mountains. 
This  Ozark  range  is  another  wall  vastly  older  than 
either  the  Allegheny  or  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
archaean  beds  that  compose  much  of  its  course  prove 
that  it  was  one  of  the  oldest  wrinkles  on  the  continent. 

With  the  exception  of  the  gap  through  which  the 
Mississippi  flows  this  ancient  wall  is  continued  un- 
broken till  it  joins  with  the  mountains  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky.  Here,  then,  we  have  a  western  wall  dating 
back  to  the  tertiary,  and  a  southern  wall,  much  older, 
broken  only  by  the  waters  of  the  Mississippi.  Now 
from  a  point  a  few  miles  south  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Kaskaskia  River,  the  Mississippi  River  runs  between 
walls  more  than  700  feet  higher  than  the  bed  of  the 
stream.  A  wide  channel  has  been  cut  through  this 
southern  wall  in  modern  geologic  times.  For  there  is 
the  gap  through  which  the  waters  now  run;  and  there 
is  the  ancient  wall  continued  on  either  side  of  the 
stream.  Suppose,  then,  this  great  gap  were  again 
rilled  up;  any  one  can  see  that  it  would  dam  up  the 
waters  which  would  again  arise  and  submerge  much  of 
the  Western  States,  and  cause  the  waters  to  run 
through  the  only  other  outlet  possible — the  St.  Law- 
rence valley, — thus  forming  a  great  inland  sea,  the  very 
object  we  desire.  Thus  when  the  Ozark  were  upheaved 
among  the  oldest  plications  of  the  earth,  the  new-born 
continent,  from  about  the  35th  or  36th  degree  of  north 
latitude,  drained  its  waters  northward,  and  those  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  afterwards  ran  eastward.  But  the 
great  Canadian  highland,  separating  the  waters  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  from  those  emptying 


156  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

into  Hudson  Bay,  is  considered  by  all  geologists  as  the 
oldest  range  of  highlands  on  the  earth.  Here,  then,  we 
have  a  north  wall  bordering  the  Great  Lake  or  inland 
sea-basin,  reaching  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  interrupted  only  by  the  elevated 
depression  of  the  Red  River  Valley  of  the  North.  As 
these  are  simple  facts  which  all  geologists  will  admit,  I 
need  not  advance  any  further  evidence  to  prove  that  the 
Great  Basin  drained  by  the  North  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  is  bounded  on  the  north,  west  and  south  by 
walls  of  great  age.  But  if  this  be  true,  we  must  admit 
that  immediately  following  the  tertiary  age  all  the 
waters  of  the  North  Mississippi  Valley,  and  those  of  the 
Ohio,  flowed  eastward  and  northward,  and  emptied 
their  waters  through  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  Atlan- 
tic; for  it  is  a  matter  of  universal  consent  that  the  New 
England  mountains  are  geologically  of  very  recent 
origin.  Hence  there  was  a  time  when  there  was  a  vast 
basin,  walled  on  all  its  sides,  except  the  eastern, — an 
age  when  New  England  was  covered  by  the  sea, — and  a 
vast  river  running  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  received 
its  hundreds  of  tributaries  from  all  sides  and  emptied 
its  waters  as  the  St.  Lawrence  now  does.  One  glance 
at  the  ancient  rim  of  this  basin  must  force  this  conclu- 
sion. What  a  wonderful  revolution  must  have  taken 
place  in  the  drainage  lines  of  the  continent !  To  con- 
ceive the  great  Missouri,  threading  its  way  among 
mighty  forests  across  the  States  of  Iowa  and  Illinois, 
and  emptying  into  Lake  Michigan,  may  seem  to  border 
on  the  visionary.  But  let  us  remember  that  grander 
and  mightier  changes  have  left  their  way-marks  upon 
the  earth.  It  is  the  only  conclusion  we  can  come  to,  as 
we  reflect,  that  two  great  parallel  primitive  mountain 


Some  Topographical  Features.  157 

ranges — the  Ozarks  and  the  Laurentian  Ridge — ex- 
tended east  and  west  across  the  infant  continent,  when 
the  Cordilleras  were  heaved  from  the  deep.  But  lest 
the  reader  may  think  I  have  strained  the  evidence  here 
produced,  I  will  compromise  so  far  as  to  only  claim  a 
probability  that  this  was  the  drainage  system  of  this 
Great  Basin,  and  we  will  bring  in  other  testimony  to 
establish  this  point. 

If  it  be  true  that  this  was  the  condition  of  the  basin 
at  the  time  referred  to,  then,  when  the  New  England 
Mountains  were  lifted  from  the  ocean,  it  threw  a  great 
barrier  across  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  forced  its  waters 
back  upon  the  valley  commingling  the  marine  fauna? 
with  those  of  fresh  water.  How  truly  this  is  the  case, 
all  geologists  familiar  with  this  territory  know  full  well. 
Imagine  then  a  new  wall  raised  upon  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  basin.  Inch  by  inch  the  confined  waters  accumu- 
late. The  St.  Lawrence  Valley  becomes  first  the  bed 
of  a  salt  water  lake.  As  the  waters  increase  it  grows 
brackish,  and  finally  fresh.  The  location  of  marine 
faunae  in  abundance  in  the  country  east  of  Montreal, 
and  fresh  water  shells  on  the  west,  and  the  com- 
mingling of  them  in  the  elevated  terraces  near  Quebec, 
certainly  strengthen  the  claim  I  have  advanced.  But 
when  we  behold  the  wonderful  mural  heights  a  few 
miles  below  Quebec,  between  which  the  St.  Lawrence 
now  flows,  a  still  stronger  evidence  is  added.  How  did 
this  river  ever  force  its  way  through  this  embrasure  ? 
On  either  side  of  the  river  are  mountain  heights  that 
doubtless  were  once  joined  as  a  natural  breast-work 
across  the  stream.  Geologists  will  all  admit  that  this 
eastern  wall  must  have  been  lifted  more  than  500  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  in  very  recent  times. 


158  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

But  this  much  of  a  wall  across  the  St.  Lawrence  would 
have  backed  its  waters,  and  have  buried  Lake  Ontario 
more  than  300  feet.  Lake  Erie  would  have  spread  its 
waters  into  Lake  Michigan,  and  all  northern  Illinois 
and  Indiana,  and  much  of  Iowa  would  have  been  under 
water.  Then  if  the  Ozark  wall  were  at  the  same  time 
joined  across  the  Mississippi,  the  four  sides  of  the  Great 
Basin  would  be  completed.  And  when  I  survey  all 
the  evidence,  it  seems  to  me  that  this  must  have  been 
the  precise  way  in  which  the  waters  of  this  vast  inland 
sea  were  confined. 

Then  for  a  more  complete  verification  of  this  claim 
let  us  imagine  a  great  mediterranean  sea,  more  than  100 
times  as  large  as  Lake  Michigan,  to  have  existed  in  this 
basin,  and  its  waters  to  have  accumulated  on  account 
of  Eastern  upheaval.  We  all  can  see  that  this  vast 
stretch  of  territory  is  a  veritable  basin  whose  sides  are 
of  more  than  sufficient  height,  if  filled  with  water,  to 
form  an  inland  sea  more  than  one  hundred  times  the 
size  of  Lake  Michigan,  more  than  600  feet  deep  in  the 
lowest  part  of  the  basin — i.e.,  in  the  region  of  the  Great 
Lakes.  If  we  could  build  a  wall  across  the  Mississippi, 
or  rather  restore  the  wall  which  countless  ages  have 
worn  away,  and  again  build  up  the  mighty  parapet  that 
once  stretched  across  the  St.  Lawrence  a  short  distance 
below  Quebec,  a  great  sea  would  again  accumulate. 
Step  by  step  we  would  see  the  waters  gathering  in  these 
two  valleys.  Year  by  year  the  broad  expanse  of 
prairie  would  become  submerged,  millions  of  acres  of 
forests  and  numberless  animals  would  become  involved 
in  universal  death.  Now,  I  hold  that  such  an  inland 
sea  did  accumulate  over  all  this  vast  extent  of  land 
immediately  after  the  New  England  mountains  arose 


Some  Topographical  Features.  159 

from  the  sea,  and  that  this  conclusion  is  supported  by 
the  most  overwhelming  evidence.  Then,  as  before 
stated,  let  us  imagine  such  a  sea  to  have  accumulated 
over  a  territory  once  teeming  with  abundant  life,  while 
we  examine  the  evidence. 

First,  then,  there  are  the  three  primitive  walls  on 
three  sides  of  a  great  basin.  Secondly,  the  fourth  or 
eastern  wall  was  reared  across  the  only  probable  (may 
I  not  say  possible  ?)  drainage  outlet.  Thirdly,  the 
greater  part  of  this  basin  of  more  than  500,000  square 
miles  in  area,  presents  uncontested  and  incontestable 
evidence  of  having,  in  very  recent  geologic  times,  been 
the  bed,  over  which,  for  unknown  centuries  rolled  the 
waves  of  a  fresh  water  sea. 

A  few  facts  may  now  be  stated  still  further  confirm- 
atory of  this  view :  Over  all  this  territory  lie  entombed 
in  a  fresh  water  bed  of  recent  origin,  the  remains  of  the 
mammoth,  mastodon,  and  other  huge  pachyderms  of 
interdiluvian  times,  while  in  the  New  England  moun- 
tains there  are  none,  save  possibly  here  and  there  a 
single  bone,  carried  perhaps  by  rivers  from  the  basin 
into  the  ocean.  This,  it  will  be  seen,  argues  that  while 
these  great. quadrupeds  luxuriated  in  the  Great  Basin 
Valley,  the  body  of  New  England  was  sleeping  in  the 
sea.  Again  over  this  Great  Basin  Valley,  are  innumer- 
able old  river  channels  now  filled  with  detritus,  where 
no  streams  now  flow,  and  which  have  been  filled  in  re- 
cent times  by  over-towering  waters.  And  again  in  al- 
most every  part  of  this  basin,  where  examinations  of 
these  superficial  deposits  have  been  made,  are  found  the 
remains  of  ancient  forests,  trees,  stumps,  limbs,  leaves, 
seeds,  grasses,  etc.,  etc.,  plainly  attesting  that  this  cov- 
ering was  quietly  deposited  upon  a  vast  area  of  grow- 


160  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ing  vegetation.  There  is  the  buried  soil;  there  is  the 
vegetation  it  bore;  and  there  are  the  animals  that 
luxuriated  thereon,  all  forever  shut  up  in  a  mighty 
charnel  house.  Could  this  ever  have  happened;  could 
these  conditions  ever  have  been  brought  about  except 
in  the  manner  here  suggested?  Thus,  link  after  link 
added  to  the  chain  of  evidence  seems  to  banish  every 
doubt,  that  there  was,  over  this  vast  territory  before 
named,  long  after  the  close  of  the  last  glacial  epoch, 
a  wide  expanse  of  fresh  water.  After  the  glacial 
epoch,  for  the  mud  and  silt  was  quietly  settled  upon 
a  surface  almost  universally  glaciated;  and  of  fresh 
water,  because  of  the  total  absence  of  marine  shells, 
except  as  before  stated  in  the  lower  part  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  Valley ;  and  perhaps  an  occasional  one  carried 
from  its  original  bed  by  transporting  agencies.  Again, 
where  can  there  be  found  any  other  barrier  to  confine 
such  a  sea  as  all  geologists  admit  gave  rise  to  this  super- 
ficial formation  ?  We  will  search  in  vain  for  any  other 
boundaries ! 

It  seems  then  that  the  very  presence  of  such  a  vast 
body  of  matter  collected  upon  this  area,  must  have,  by 
actual  mechanical  pressure,  depressed  it  somewhat,  so 
that  the  surrounding  ocean  must  have  stood  higher  on 
the  shores  of  the  continent  while  that  pressure  existed 
than  before  or  afterwards.  Now  this  is  a  feature  well 
known  to  geologists.  Who  is  he  that  does  not  claim 
that  the  continent,  or  at  least  a  great  part,  has  recently 
been  raised  to  a  higher  level?  Can  it  make  any  differ- 
ence whether  the  earth's  interior  be  a  molten  mass,  or 
a  solid,  plastic  under  the  reign  of  implacable  heat,  when 
this  transfer  of  mechanical  energy  from  the  continent 
and  the  ocean  is  accounted  for?  I  cannot  conceive 


Some  Topographical  Features.  161 

how  the  measureless  weight  of  a  great  mediterranean 
sea,  could  be  removed  from  one  part  of  the  earth  to 
another,  without  changing  the  water-line  of  the  con- 
tinent relieved  of  that  weight.  It  is  not  far  back  in  the 
geological  history  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  when  the 
waters  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas,  and  again  retired,  but  to  again  approach  as 
the  ocean's  waters  were  augmented.  And  one  who  is 
familiar  with  the  features  resulting  from  these  great 
changes  can,  with  but  little  difficulty,  link  them  in  order 
of  time  with  the  recession  of  these  inland  waters. 

But  we  have  now  so  nearly  approached  an  unavoid- 
able conclusion  that  but  little  is  needed  to  reduce  it  to 
a  demonstration.  The  great  hypothetic  sea  has  long 
since  retired.  Can  we  not  find  the  tracks, — the  way- 
marks  of  its  retreat,  and  make  them  depose  in  support 
of  our  claim.  Let  us  attempt  it. 

The  great  waters  thus  hypothecated,  I  will  call  the 
Millerian  Sea.*  Considering  the  depressing  eifects  it 
likely  had  upon  its  bed,  it  must,  at  the  time  of  its  ex- 
istence, have  received  the  waters  from  a  large  expanse 
of  Canadian  highlands.  The  Millerian  Sea  by  some 
grand  process  made  for  itself  two  great  outlets — i.e., 
the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Lawrence.  Making  due  al- 
lowance for  all  likely  depression,  as  shown  by  marine 
estuary  deposits  in  the  present  river  valleys,  that  sea 
must  have  towered  from  700  to  800  feet  above  the 

*  I  have  thus  named  it  in  honor  of  my  aged  friend,  Morris 
Miller,  who  many  years  ago  directed  my  attention  to  the  south- 
ern boundary  of  this  sea,  and  who  outlined  it  almost  precisely 
as  the  late  geological  surveys  have  outlined  the  glaciated  area. 
Now  if  this  boundary  be  true  for  the  glacier,  it  must  also  be  true 
for  the  sea.  Those  desiring  to  learn  further  of  the  Millerian  sea 
and  the  great  floods  attending  the  rupture  of  its  boundaries,  may 
obtain  much  from  the  author's  lecture  on  the  same  in  Volume 
II  of  the  annular  theory. 


162  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ocean.  We  can  then  faintly  imagine  with  what  terrific 
force  its  waters  rushed  to  the  boundaries  of  the  con- 
tinent when  their  ramparts  by  some  process  were  rup- 
tured. 

We  are  now  brought  face  to  face  with  a  question  that 
apparently  defies  solution  without  the  aid  of  "  upper 
waters."  How  did  this  sea  make  for  itself  two  outlets ? 
Can  we  imagine  a  lake  bursting  its  walls  and  rushing 
to  the  sea  through  two  outlets,  and  continuing  to  cut 
down  deep  channels  until  it  is  drained?  How  did  it 
ever  occur  that  the  St.  Lawrence  break  accommodated 
the  Mississippi  rupture  by  not  drawing  the  waters  east- 
ward and  away  from  the  latter?  How  did  it  happen 
that  the  Mississippi  break  did  not  close  the  St.  Law- 
rence outflow,  by  drawing  the  waters  thence?  How 
did  it  happen  that  both  breaks  in  opposite  extremities 
of  the  boundary  were  made  at  the  same  time?  Why 
did  they  mutually  keep  pace  with  each  other,  until  the 
waters  cut  downwards  and  backwards  channels  for  two 
of  the  greatest  rivers  of  the  earth  ?  It  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible that  in  ordinary  course  of  drainage  the  waters 
would  not  all  have  been  drawn  to  one  outlet.  To  ac- 
count, then,  for  the  two  breaks  and  the  two  river  sys- 
tems, we  are  forced  to  admit  that  some  vast  and  meas- 
ureless supply  of  descending  waters  made  the  Millerian 
Sea  to  leap  its  barriers  at  both  points,  at  one  and  the 
same  time,  and  that  that  supplying-source  kept  up  the 
waters  so  long  that  the  excavations  were  far  advanced 
under  its  government;  after  which  each  excavation  con- 
tinued independently. 

But,  if  such  a  source  supplied  the  retiring  sea  with 
waters,  it  must  also  have  supplied  a  black  sooty  car- 
bon, that  settled  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  forming  the 


Some  Topographical  Features.  163 

very  superfice  of  the  sea  bed,  when  the  waters  receded. 
Now  where  must  we  find  this  carbonaceous  covering,  if 
it  did  fall  ?  Certainly  more  abundantly  in  the  north- 
ern, middle  and  western  part  of  the  basin.  For  the 
northern  and  northwestern  slopes  of  the  continent  must 
have  supplied  it,  for  there  alone  were  the  rivers  that 
could  bear  it  seawards.  And  when  it  once  reached  the 
sea,  the  tendency  would  be  for  it  to  move  with  the 
moving  waters  toward  the  southern  break.  Then  the 
carbonaceous  matter,  which  I  beg  leave  to  denominate 
carbonite,  must  have  settled  more  largely  over  the 
States  adjoining  the  Mississippi. 

Well,  when  one  travels  over  the  great  prairies  of  the 
States  referred  to,  he  sees  nothing  more  striking  than 
the  carbonite  that  covers  this  vast  reach  of  territory. 
It  covers  all  the  hills,  it  fills  all  the  swamps  and  sloughs; 
it  is  the  foundation  of  all  peat  deposits,  and  it  spreads 
over  all  the  plains — a  black  top  covering,  varying  from 
a  few  inches  in  thickness  on  the  uplands  to  a  few  feet 
in  the  valleys. 

I  know  I  am  now,  as  well  as  at  many  other  times, 
rejecting  popular  opinion — that  this  black,  superficial 
coating  is  the  result  of  a  slow  accumulation  of  carbon 
from  the  annual  fires,  that  probably  swept  over  the  re- 
gion in  former  times ;  but  while  law  presides  in  nature's 
high  court  of  order,  this  cannot  be  so.  While  that  uni- 
versal and  inexorable  devourer,  oxygen,  is  present  in 
the  atmosphere,  every  particle  of  unconsumed  carbon 
arising  from  incomplete  combustion,  is  afterwards  con- 
sumed, nothing  being  left  but  the  ash  of  vegetation. 
So  that  so  far  from  being  a  carbonaceous  product, 
black  and  pitchy  as  it  is,  the  soil  would  rather  consist 
of  the  mineral  ash  accumulation  of  centuries.  We  see 


164  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

this  process  continually  going  on  around  us.  The 
dense,  black  column  of  unconsumed  carbon  rising  from 
every  locomotive,  and  chimney,  is  soon  seized  upon 
and  dissipated.  Besides  it  is  found  in  the  bottoms  of 
ponds  and  lakelets,  where  fires  did  not  devour,  and 
where  streams  have  not  transported  it  from  the  sur- 
rounding regions.  So  surely  then  as  a  fire  sweeps 
over  a  plain,  leaving  blackness  in  its  path,  so  surely  the 
unburnt  carbon  it  leaves  behind  is  re-burnt  and  made 
to  disappear.  But  there  are  things  that  must  forever 
set  this  question  at  rest.  The  carbonite  when  sealed 
from  the  atmosphere  by  a  covering  above  it,  is  a 
purer  carbon,  and  when  dug  up  and  exposed  to  the  air 
will  sometimes  take  fire  spontaneously,  but  neverthe- 
less leaves  a  black,  ashy  compound.  This  certainly 
proves  that  it  had  been  covered  and  sealed  from  the 
action  of  the  air  ever  since  it  fell,  and  never  was  the 
product  of  a  burning  vegetation.  But  if  unyielding 
law  is  not  sufficient  to  force  compliance  in  one  way,  it 
may  be  in  another.  If  the  ten  thousand  lakelets  and 
ponds  of  the  great  northwest  on  whose  bottoms  rests  a 
stratum  of  carbonite,  are  not  able  to  settle  this  ques- 
tion, there  is  one  witness  that  none  will  fail  to  honor: 
Millions  of  boulders  lie  in  and  upon  this  pitchy  soil.  If 
prairie  fires  formed  the  black  soil  that  covers  the  fields, 
they  did  not  form  that  which  underlies  these  lost  trav- 
elers of  a  former  day.  Some  boulders,  when  brought  by 
ice  floating  upon  the  sea,  were  dropped  upon  a  black, 
pitchy  bed  at  the  bottom  of  that  sea.  Thus,  again,  are 
we  driven  by  the  logic  of  facts  to  the  eternal  rock  of 
Law,  and  the  annular  theory  is  settled  still  deeper 
upon  its  immutable  foundation. 

Here  we  find,  also,  lying  immediately  under  the  car- 


Some  Topographical  Features.  165 

bonite,  the  same  kind  of  clay  that  accompanies  the  car- 
bon deposits  of  the  world.  The  same  tellurio-cosmic 
dust  of  clay  that  accompanied  every  carbon  downfall, 
and  separating  therefrom  settled  first  because  of  its 
greater  specific  gravity.  Now  we  may  readily  under- 
stand why,  over  so  much  of  the  great  northwest,  there 
is  such  a  lack  of  forest  growth.  Is  it  not  a  fact  with- 
in the  comprehension  of  everyone,  that  if  the  treeless 
prairies  were  not  covered  by  this  seedless  deposit  from 
on  high,  they  would  be  covered  with  forests  as  other 
lands?  Is  it  not  also  a  fact,  well  known  and  easy  of 
demonstration,  that  whenever  this  seedless  covering 
has  been  removed,  there  forests  have  sprung  up?  The 
rock-soil  from  which  the  oak,  the  hickory,  ash,  etc.,  in- 
variably spring,  has  been  covered  by  an  impervious 
bed,  seedless  as  the  dust  of  space,  and  forest  growth  is 
an  impossibility.  There  seems  to  be  no  other  possible 
reason  why  the  deep  soil  of  the  prairies  is  not  as  other 
strata.  In  short,  it  certainly  is  a  fact,  that  if  this 
deposit  were  the  detritus  of  other  and  neighboring 
lands,  they  would  be  timbered  as  other  lands.  Here, 
then,  is  solved  another  perplexing  problem. 

A  sufficient  amount  of  evidence  of  sudden  accessions 
of  water  throughout  the  vast  lapse  of  time,  during 
which  the  Millerian  Sea  was  retiring,  might  be  collated 
to  fill  a  volume  of  itself;  and  it  would  be  a  pleasing  task 
to  give  it  now  to  the  reader,  but  I  must  move  on  to 
other  fields. 

Look  at  the  millions  of  valleys,  channels  and  minor 
corrugations  that  have  been  made  by  the  excavating 
power  of  running  water!  I  can  count  fifty  of  them 
from  my  window  to-day,  through  which  no  water  runs, 
except  during  a  rain.  From  yonder  range  of  hills 


166  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

radiate  deep  channels  that  evidently  could  not  have 
been  made  by  such  rains  as  fall  at  this  age.  Fifty 
years  ago  these  hills  were  covered  by  the  primeval  for- 
ests, and  rains  could  make  no  more  impression  upon 
them  then  than  now.  The  autumn  leaves  gathered  in 
these  long  trenches  and  hindered  excavation.  There  the 
grass,  shrubs  and  bushes  are  growing,  and  only  when 
it  rains,  a  powerless  stream  threads  its  way  to  the  creek 
below.  Did  such  transient  puny  streams  make  these 
deep  gaps  in  the  hillside?  It  cannot  be.  Yonder  is 
a  valley  two  miles  wide,  and  the  merest  rill  is  the  only 
excavating  agent  that  occupies  it.  It  is  only  one  of 
thousands  and  millions  that  ramify  in  all  directions  the 
world  over.  And  as  I  contemplate  the  puny  agent  and 
the  grand  result,  I  am  forced  to  say  that  nothing  less 
competent  than  appalling  down-rushes  of  devouring 
floods  could  have  made  these  streamless  channels.  And 
when  I  have  stood  before  the  grand  old  ocean,  driving 
its  devouring  waves  against  the  shore,  and  tossing  its 
flowing  mane  on  high,  and  have  remembered  that  there 
are  waters  enough  there  to  make  one  thousand  floods, 
each  of  which  would  cover  the  entire  earth  fifteen  or 
twenty  feet  deep;  and  remembering  that  these  water* 
fell  from  "above  the  firmament"  as  fearful  cataclysms; 
I  see  the  world  again  and  again  writhing  in  the  serpent 
folds  of  the  deluge.  I  see  man  in  the  mysterious  plan- 
ning of  Deity,  the  victim  of  immovable  decree.  Oh, 
Thou  incomprehensible  mighty  One !  Shall  man's 
mortal  eye  ever  penetrate  this  veil  and  read  what  lies 
beyond  ? 


Fig.  G.     THE  CLOSING  SCENE. 
(EAKTH  WITH  BELTS  CAPPING  THE  POLES.) 

Fig.  G  represents  the  earth  stripped  of  its  annular  appendage 
and  with  its  last  lingering  canopy  suspended  over  the  regions  of 
both  poles  as  vast  clouds.  Over  the  tropics  and  much  of  the  tern 
perate  /.ones  the  vapors  had  become  so  thin  that  the  clear  sky 
could  be  seen  at  times  and  in  places.  The  sun  shone  into  this  thin 
vapor  sky  and  made  it  a  most  brilliant  illuminator.  The  sun  itself 
was  dimly  seen  in  this  effulgent  heaven  as  a  conquering  hero  wag- 
ing victorious  contests  with  vapor  fees.  I  have  found  this  white 
and  shining  heaven  with  a  hidden  sun  in  the  ancient  thought  of 
many  peoples.  This  was  the  "  Peplos "  that  Penelope  wove  in 
the  day  and  unwove  at  night — a  brilliant  veil  of  vapors  that  il- 
luminated the  whole  earth.  But  the  God  of  nature  had  decreed 
that  it  should  be  taken  down,  and  He  destroyed  "  the  face  ol  the 
covering  cast  over  all  people  and  the  veil  that  was  spread  over 
all  nations."  Is.  25:  7. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  GLACIAL  EPOCHS  AND  EDEN  RUINS. 
ANNULAR  SNOWS  THE  ONLY  COMPETENT  CAUSE. 

Perhaps  about  80,000  years  ago,*  the  earth,  now 
teeming  with  multifarious  forms  of  life,  was  a  scene  of 
death  and  almost  boundless  desolation.  The  unmis- 
takable language  of  the  geologic  record  is  that  there 
had  just  closed  a  long  era  of  perpetual  spring,  f  The 
mammoth,  mastodon,  and  a  multitude  of  other  huge 
quadrupeds,  whose  giant  remains  are  found  in  the 
world's  stupendous  wreck,  fed  upon  the  products  of  a 
tropical  and  semi-tropical  earth.  Contemporary  perhaps 
with  these  lived  that  race  of  beings  upon  whom  we 
must  look  as  the  precursors  of  man.  That  was  pre- 
eminently the  age  of  huge  pachyderms  and  other  giant 
races.  Their  remains  indicate  that  they  were  much 
larger  than  their  living  representatives  of  to-day.  In 
looking  over  this  pre-glacial — it  may  be  inter-glacial 
world — the  investigator  is  forcibly  struck  with  its  mani- 
fest completeness.  It  would  seem  that  if  there  ever 
was  an  age  when  the  earth  came  forth  from  the  hand 
of  the  Great  Architect  in  perfection,  ready  for  the 
advent  of  man,  and  all  that  was  necessary  for  his  com- 
fort and  happiness,  it  was  then.  It  was  unmistakably 
a  green-house  world.  The  primitive  elephant,  and 
many  of  his  congeners  and  contemporaries,  fed  in  lux- 
uriant forests,  and  grassy  plains,  where  now  the  glaciers 


*  Geikie's  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  135. 

I  Belcher's  "  Last  Arctic  Voyage,"  Vol.  I,  page  380. 


168  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

of  the  arctic  world  are  holding  them  in  relentless 
grasp,  or  grinding  their  bones  to  dust.  How  shall  we 
account  for  this  wondrous  change — a  comprehensive 
and  universal  change,  so  sudden  and  appalling  as  to 
leave  upon  the  mind  the  impression  that  a  far-reaching 
and  all-involving  destruction  had  overtaken  the  fair 
planet  ?  This  change  is  a  well-known  way-mark  in  the 
geologic  past.  Could  the  powers  of  heaven  and  earth, 
— the  tornado  and  the  earthquake, — combine  in  one 
grand  revulsion  to  crush  out  the  present  life-forms  of 
the  earth,  obliterate  its  cities,  and  cover  in  one  vast 
rock-covering  all  that  is  now  seen  upon  its  surface,  it 
could  be  but  a  repetition  of  the  change  that  involved 
the  pre-glacial  world  of  universal  life.* 

Now,  the  geologist  knows  full  well  what  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  this  great  change  was.  He  knows  that, 
as  the  earth  became  peopled  bj  an  infinitude  of  living 
forms,  under  the  influence  of  perpetual  spring,  in  a 
tropical  or  semi-tropical  world,  so  it  became  desolated 
by  refrigeration,  and  the  spread  of  snows  and  ice  over 
the  continents.  These  Titan  plows, — glaciers  and  ice- 
bergs,— from  the  polar  regions,  again  moved  toward 
the  equator,  and  continued  to  increase  until  almost 
every  valley  within  the  temperate  zones  was  filled  with 
ice.  The  glaciers  plowed  the  plain,  scarred  the  hill- 
tops and  carved  the  mountain  side.  Nay,  hills  were 
pushed  aside  by  their  resistless  progress;  valleys  and 
river-systems  obliterated  and  a  living  world  made  a 
panorama  of  universal  death;  in  short,  ground  up  and 
remodeled  the  surface  of  the  luxuriant  earth,  for  the 
introduction  of  new,  but  similar,  forms  of  life. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  labors  of  geologists  to  read  and 

*Geikie's  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  460;  also  pages  484  and  341. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  169 

study  the  "  records,"  and  give,  if  possible,  a  competent 
cause  of  these  great  revolutions.  Many  theories  have 
been  advanced  in  order  to  explain  them,  but  few  of 
them  possess  even  the  air  of  plausibility,  and  have  been 
relegated  to  quiet  oblivion.  Among  those  having 
claims  to  our  consideration,  is  that  proposed  by  Dr.  J. 
Croll,  and  which  has  the  powerful  endorsement  of  Gei- 
kie,  in  his  admirable  volume,  the  "  Great  Ice  Age."  It 
may  be  a  lack  in  my  power  to  comprehend  it, — and  yet 
there  seems  nothing  puzzling  in  it, — but  I  am  un- 
able to  see  how  a  man  of  deep  penetration  can  find 
natural  law  to  defend  it.  To  examine  it  in  detail  would 
swell  this  volume  beyond  its  intended  limits.  I  shall, 
therefore,  state  but  few  objections  which  I  think  must, 
in  the  mind  of  reasonable  men,  be  fatal  to  it;  and  then 
advance  the  aqueous  falls  of  the  earth's  annular  sys- 
tem as  the  competent  cause. 

It  will  be  necessary  to  explain  some  parts  of  the 
Crollian  theory  of  glacial  epochs  to  the  common 
reader.  It  is  well  known  that  the  earth's  orbit  is  not 
circular,  but  in  the  form  of  an  ellipse.  So  that  in  its 
annual  circuit  around  the  sun  the  earth  once  in  the 
year  approaches  much  nearer  to  that  luminary  than  it 
would  were  its  orbit  an  exact  circle.  Consequently, 
once  in  the  year  it  recedes  to  a  greater  distance  from 
it.  The  sun  also  being  located  not  in  the  center  of  the 
earth's  orbit,  but,  as  it  were,  in  one  end  of  an  ellipse, 
the  earth  whilst  in  the  other  end  is  far  removed  from 
solar  warmth.  Again  the  orbit  is  subject  to  exceed- 
ingly slow  changes  in  shape,  by  which,  in  time,  it  is  so 
far  removed  from  the  form  of  a  circle  that  it  becomes 
very  eccentric,  and  the  earth,  of  course,  must  recede  to 
a  vast  distance  from  the  sun.  Now,  Dr.  Croll  con- 


170  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ceives  that  the  globe,  when  in  the  aphelion  part  of  its 
path,  or  farthest  from  the  sun,  accumulates  more  snows 
in  its  polar  regions  during  its  winters  than  the  heat  of 
summer  is  able  to  dissipate,  which  after  ages  of  accumu 
lation  amounts  to  a  glacial  fund,  and  causes  long 
periods  of  refrigeration  or  excessive  cold.  While  this 
theory  appears  plausible  at  first  sight,  it  is  far  from 
able  to  abide  the  test  of  analytical  reasoning  and  philo- 
sophic law. 

First:  It  ignores  the  law,  long  ago  laid  down  by 
that  prince  of  philosophers,  John  Tyndall,  which  may 
be  briefly  stated  thus :  Snows,  to  be  formed,  require  the 
expenditure  of  solar  energy,  and  the  greater  the  amount 
of  snows,  the  greater  the  energy  required.  To  take 
the  earth  from  the  sun,  then,  robs  it  of  snows,  and  of 
the  possibility  of  the  accumulation  of  snows.  One 
would  not  think  of  increasing  the  working  force  of  his 
engine  by  robbing  it  of  fuel.  I  know  there  are  a  great 
many  circumstances  and  qualifying  conditions  that  may 
be  pointed  to;  but  under  all  conditions  the  fact  remains, 
that,  to  cover  the  earth  with  ice  and  snow,  you  must  in- 
crease rather  than  diminish  the  engine  force. 

Second:  It  makes  almost  an  infinite  number  of  gla- 
cial periods,  in  the  vast  ages  of  paleozoic  and  subsequent 
times,  whereas  they  are  few  and  definite,  which  both 
the  silurian  and  devonian  order  of  stratification  abun- 
dantly declare. 

Third:  It  makes  the  glacial  periods  regularly  recur- 
ring visitations,  while  there  is  not  the  slightest  evi- 
dence to  be  gleaned  from  the  vast  ages  of  geologic 
time  that  they  did  so  recur.  On  the  contrary,  the  evi- 
dence is  that  they  came  after  long  and  very  irregularlv 
intervening  periods. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  171 

Fourth :  It  is  evident  that  a  continent  encased  with 
ice  by  means  of  solar  evaporation  of  the  oceanic  waters 
could  never  again  become  freed  from  its  fetters;  for, 
since  it  requires  a  great  expenditure  of  solar  heat  to 
secure  the  formation  of  vapors,  before  snows  can  pos- 
sibly accumulate,  it  is  plain  that  the  glaciers  could 
not  be  melted  unless  the  heat  should  become  greater. 
But  this  increased  heat  would  increase  evaporation,  and 
increased  evaporation  means,  to  some  extent,  at  least,  a 
greater  precipitation  of  snows,  and  an  increase  of  gla- 
ciers. The  very  energy  required  to  melt  the  glaciers, 
is  the  same  that  would  necessarily  augment  and  per- 
petuate them.  So  that  if  a  continent  should  once  be- 
come refrigerated  by  increased  vaporization  how  could 
it  possibly  become  free  from  the  grip  of  ice  ? 

Thus  in  the  very  outset  we  meet  most  insuperable 
difficulties.  We  cannot  expect  the  earth  to  become 
covered  with  snows  by  cooling  it,  and  stopping  the  for- 
mation of  aqueous  vapor,  and  the  sooner  we  abandon 
this  most  unreasonable  claim,  the  earlier  will  the  ques- 
tion be  settled.  Glacial  theories  have  been  rejected 
because  they  do  not  present  a  natural  scheme  of  causa- 
tion and  sequence,  and  as  it  would  be  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  a  theory  more  antagonistic  to  natural  law  than 
this  one  is,  is  it  strange  that  such  men  as  the  illustrious 
Tyndall  should  hesitate  to  adopt  it?  Prof.  Geikie 
says :  "  No  half -explanation  will  suffice ;  the  key  which 
we  obtain  must  open  a  way  into  every  obscure  hole  and 
corner;  each  and  every  fact  have  full  recognition  in  the 
theory  which  may  be  ultimately  adopted."  The  con- 
sideration then  of  such  difficulties  as  here  presented, 
and  which  are  far  from  obtaining  even  a  "  half-explana- 


172  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

tion,"  renders  it  strange  that  the  Crollian  theory  should 
ever  have  received  the  support  of  such  powerful  minds. 

If  glaciers  in  all  ages  were  always  formed  as  local 
glaciers  are  to-day;  if  the  vast  continental  ice  plateaus 
that  accumulated  mountain  high  above  the  ocean's 
level  in  both  hemispheres  were  formed  in  the  same  way 
as  they  are  made  to-day  in  the  Andes,  the  Alps,  and 
the  Himalayas,  then  vaporization  under  solar  energy 
went  on  synchronically  with  condensation  and  precipi- 
tation. But  can  it  be  possible  that  during  the  glacia- 
tion  of  a  hemisphere,  that  hemisphere  can  be  both 
warm  enough  to  vaporize  the  aqueous  element,  and 
cold  enough  at  the  same  time  to  build  an  ice-continent, 
— embracing  millions  of  square  miles?  In  order  to 
produce  the  mighty  ice  continents  of  the  glacial  periods 
in  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  according  to  the  current 
theory,  one-half  the  earth  must  have  maintained  a 
genial  climate,  while  the  other  had  a  temperature  ex- 
cessively arctic.  We  can  imagine  the  Alpine  glaciers 
to  be  constantly  increasing  by  the  vapors  wafted  over 
them  from  adjacent  lands,  warmed  by  solar  heat, — the 
only  way  that  glaciers  now  are  formed, — but  we  can- 
not conceive  of  vapors  carried  from  heated  lands,  by 
accommodating  currents  on  a  frozen  world?  To  ac- 
count, then,  for  the  glaciation  of  the  interior  of  conti- 
nents, the  snow  and  ice  must  have  accumulated  on  its 
borders,  and  have  flowed  inwards  and  upwards  from  the 
oceans,  which  as  all  know  was  not  the  case.  Hence  it 
is  conclusive  that  the  glacial  periods  were  not  produced 
by  glaciers  formed  as  they  now  are  formed.  But  there 
is  no  other  competent  cause  for  the  accumulation  of 
such  snows  than  the  decline  of  annular  vapors. 

Again,  the  well-known  and  peculiar  properties  of 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  173 

glacier  ice  must  always  hinder  its  great  accumulation, 
unless  it  accumulates  more  rapidly  than  it  moves  off. 
It  flows,  and  it  cannot  be  heaped  up  without  limit.  Its 
rate  of  motion  is  in  proportion  to  the  slope  of  its  bed 
and  the  fund  of  ice.  As  water,  by  flowing,  exhausts 
the  supply,  and  cannot  accumulate  unless  the  supply  is 
more  rapid  than  the  flow;  so  a  glacier  cannot  increase 
unless  the  snows  that  form  it  are  supplied  more  rapidly 
than  it  can  retire.  What,  then,  must  have  been  the 
source  of  those  snows  that  built  a  mighty  continental 
ice-cap  over  the  Northern  Hemisphere  during  the  last 
glacial  epoch?  With  every  opportunity  to  move  down 
a  thousand  valleys  and  slopes  to  the  south,  or  toward 
the  seas,  with  every  foot  of  increase  in  the  depth  of  ice 
necessarily  increasing  its  outward  flow,  I  must  claim 
that  the  earth  has  not  now  any  source  from  which  such 
a  mass  of  ice  could  be  supplied;  and  I  am  therefore 
driven  to  the  grand  and  all-competent  source  of  tel- 
lurio-cosmic  snows  in  the  earth's  annular  system. 

As  during  the  Noachian  deluge  the  earth  could  have 
been  desolated  by  surging  and  heaping  floods  from  no 
other  source  than  the  "  waters  above  the  firmament," 
falling  in  medial  latitudes;  so  we  cannot  expect  to 
cover  a  continent  with  towering  snows  from  any  other 
source.  Men  of  science  must  not  conclude  that  glaciers 
always  accumulated  by  the  puny  process  that  now 
builds  a  local  ice-heap  in  a  mountain  valley.  They  must 
rise  to  a  grander  conception.  The  foundation  of  the  gla- 
ciation  of  planets  was  laid  in  the  igneous  era.  The  im- 
placable heat  of  the  primitive  earth  necessitated  the 
glacial  epochs,  and  the  present  process  of  vaporization 
and  congelation  under  solar  influence  is  an  insignificant 
process  in  the  same  direction  by  different  means.  Is 


174  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

it  not  a  fact  within  the  comprehension  of  all  persons 
that  if  glaciers  had  no  other  source  at  any  time  than 
they  now  have,  the  arctic  ice  could  never  have  moved 
over  the  Northern  Hemisphere  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that 
they  do  not  now  accumulate  in  any  land?  The  great 
Humboldt  Mer-de-glace  of  Greenland,  moves  toward 
the  sea,  and  the  more  rapidly  the  snow  accumulates  and 
hardens  into  glacier  ice  the  more  rapid  is  its  motion 
coast-wise.  So  that  neither  in  temperate  latitudes 
nor  in  frigid  climes  can  glaciers  indefinitely  accumulate 
by  evaporation  and  congelation.  But  during  the  gla- 
cial epochs  the  tendency  of  indefinite  glacier  accumula- 
tion is  apparent.*  Therefore  they  did  not  accumulate 
as  glaciers  do  now !  This  is  the  great  enigma  that  puz- 
zles so  many. 

It  is  the  privilege  of  the  annular  theory  to  make 
this  plain.  Now  it  must  be  admitted  that  every  drop 
of  the  terrestrial  waters  has  fallen  to  the  earth  from 
tellurio-cosmic  space !  and  more  largely  than  otherwise 
these  have  fallen  in  polar  regions !  All  that  is  needed 
for  men  to  understand  this  is  first  to  abandon  the  un- 
reasonable and  unnatural  claim  that  these  waters  all 
fell  to  the  earth  in  archaean  and  pre-glacial  times;  and 
admit  the  purely  philosophic  and  natural  fall  of  the 
same  from  over-canopying  belts  spreading  and  moving 
through  the  ages  with  a  step  as  sure  as  the  movement 

*  We  have  but  to  read  such  works  as  Agassiz's  "  Geological 
Sketches "  to  understand  the  immensity  of  the  ice  field  that 
moved  over  the  Northern  Hemisphere  during  the  great  ice  age. 
Glaciers  accumulated  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley  several  thousand 
feet  thick.  In  their  limitless  sweep  they  towered  over  the  New 
England  Mountains,  scoring  and  planing  their  rocky  side  six 
thousand  feet  above  the  ocean.  I  have  seen  their  tracks  indelibly 
chiseled  1,500  feet  above  glaciated  valleys  in  the  Blue  Ridge.  The 
same  glacier  that  was  urged  up  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley  no  doubt 
filled  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Mississippi  Valley. 


Fig.  7.     ASTERIE,  Oil  STAttUY  ISLE. 


To. 


(aTpa.    ztti    df>%d<f   /JLSV 


aJS    &ve%0%V(U.  —  Diogenes  Laertivs. 


I  have  here  illustrated  what  must  be  more  fully  explained  in  another  volume,—  the  vaulted 
enclosures  of  the  northern  sky,  the  last  form  of  every  falling  world-belt.  The  (Ireek  quotation 
here  taken  from  the  writings  of  Diogenes  Laertius  is  the  "  Moabite  Stone  "  of  th's  problem,  and 
though  translated  variously,  it  simply  tells  us  that  the  "Arctic  stars  once  rtrolvrtl  in  a  tholos." 
Now  a  tholos  is  a  vaulted  enclosure  —  a  space  enclosed  by  an  arched  roof  or  dome.  The  author 
I  have  here  quoted  tells  us  that  this  was  the  doctrine  of  the  earliest  astronomers,  and  cites 
Anaxagoras  as  its  advocate.  Hut  it  matters  not  who  first  said  that  the  "archaic  stars  revolved 
(or  dwelt)  in  a  dome-shaped  chamber."  It  affirms  that  the  stars  spoken  of  were  north  polar 
stars,  for  as  surely  as  the  earth  had  a  canopy,  as  I  have  proved,  man  saw  the  stars  first  in  a 
dome-shaped  enclosure,  and  they  were  called  "  archa'c  stars"  because  they  were  seen  among  these 
polar  archff,  not  because  they  were  ancient  stars. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  175 

of  worlds,  toward  the  poles,  where  they  descended  as 
mighty  and  terrific  down-rushes  of  snow.  Men  may  call 
this  the  Vailian  theory,  or  by  whatever  name  they 
choose,  but  it  must  stand  the  test  of  law  through  all 
time,  because: 

First :  It  is  natural,  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
oceans  now  on  the  earth  reached  its  surface  as  snow, 
at  least  to  a  great  extent. 

Second:  It  is  evidently  the  only  natural  means  by 
which  great  polar  ice-caps  could  accumulate  more  rap- 
idly than  they  could  move  or  flow  toward  the  seas,  by 
means  of  which  the  earth  became  filled  with  snows  and 
the  continents  ground  and  pulverized  into  mud. 

Third:  It  is  the  only  means  by  which  great  snow- 
fields  could  suddenly  entomb  a  living  world,  which,  as 
arctic  lands  demonstrate  beyond  a  doubt,  has  taken 
place. 

Fourth :  It  is  the  only  competent  means  of  explain- 
ing the  presence  of  carbonite  in  great  layers  between 
strata  of  ice  and  snow,  as  seen  in  polar  lands. 


I  have  given  sufficient  reasons  in  foregoing  chapters 
for  advancing  the  claim  that  the  oceans  in  great  part 
fell  at  the  poles  as  snow.  I  will  certainly  be  allowed 
to  make  this  claim  at  this  stage  of  the  investigation, 
considering  the  cumulative  evidence  pointing  to  the 
annular  system  in  the  whole  line  of  discussion  in  the 
preceding  pages.  But  let  us  now  examine  the  ipse  dixit 
of  the  polar  worlds  themselves. 

Were  we  to  turn  our  gaze  upon  the  mighty  wall  of 
ice  on  the  antarctic  continent;  washed  in  its  grand  cir- 
cuit by  the  waves  of  the  Southern  Ocean,  we  would  no 


176  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

longer  doubt  that  such  a  mass  of  snows  came  upon  that 
land  from  beyond  the  atmosphere.  From  what  can  be 
determined  from  discoveries  by  Ross  and  Wilkes,  the 
imaginary  "  Antarctic  Continent "  is  one  mighty  field 
of  glacier  ice,  nearly  2,000  miles  across.  In  many 
places  where  the  glacier  is  washed  by  the  ocean,  it  rises 
perpendicularly  to  enormous  height,  and  extends  below 
the  surface  of  the  sea  to  an  unknown  depth.  It  is  an 
ice  continent  beyond  the  reach  of  snow-falls  from  vapor 
congelation.  The  vapors  from  warmer  seas  fall  long 
before  they  reach  this  ice-field;  and  exist  as  impenetra- 
ble and  almost  perpetual  fogs  in  latitude  about  65°  to 
70°  south. 

Captain  Foster,  of  the  Chanticleer,  spent  several 
months  at  Deception  Island,  in  latitude  65°  south,  and 
he  particularly  refers  to  this  region  of  fogs.  Though 
in  the  middle  of  summer,  the  air  was  so  intensely  cold 
and  raw  that  some  of  his  companions  who  had  previous- 
ly wintered  in  the  arctic  seas,  declared  they  did  not 
suffer  more  there  than  they  did  in  the  Southern  Ocean. 
The  fogs  were  so  thick  and  frequent  that  for  nearly  two 
weeks  neither  the  sun  nor  the  stars  could  be  seen.  Here, 
on  islands  where  almost  continual  fogs  are  encountered, 
glaciers  might  accumulate.  These  fogs  are  met  with 
by  all  who  sail  over  these  waters,  and  are  referred  to 
by  many  voyagers  on  account  of  their  prevalence.  Here, 
it  seems,  in  the  circle  of  air  between  the  line  of  eternal 
frost,  and  that  of  aqueous  vaporization,  the  frozen 
vapors  descend,  as  we  would  reasonably  expect.  I 
think  it  was  Lieutenant  Maury  who  reasoned  from  this 
fact,  that  aqueous  vapors  raised  in  warm  parts  of  the 
earth  never  reached  the  polar  world,  but  descended  in 
the  temperate  zones.  From  what  source,  then,  came 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  177 

this  mighty  casement  of  ice  ?  Since  it  is  unreasonable 
to  suppose  it  came  from  warmer  latitudes,  since  par- 
ticles of  redundant  aqueous  vapor  must  fall  before  the 
temperature  of  the  atmosphere  is  reduced  to  that  of  the 
average  in  the  polar  worlds,  it  must  be  a  mere  accident 
that  snow-storms  ever  occur  in  extreme  polar  latitudes. 
When  sledge-tracks  were  seen  by  Dr.  Kane  nearly  20 
degrees  from  the  pole,  though  several  years  had  elapsed 
since  they  had  been  made;  when  the  bleaching  skeletons 
of  unfortunate  explorers,  articles  of  clothing,  etc.,  are 
found  uncovered  in  arctic  snow,  where  it  is  possible 
snows  might  occur;  when  the  bones  of  mammals  such 
as  the  musk-ox  remain  for  years  exposed  to  view,  as  seen 
by  arctic  explorers,  it  seems  indeed  reasonable  that 
snows  seldom  fall  in  the  extreme  polar  worlds.  How, 
then,  did  these  boundless  reaches  of  snow  and  ice  accu- 
mulate ? 

Again,  since  it  is  well  known  and  now  generally  ad- 
mitted by  geologists  that  glaciers  did  increase  and  ac- 
cumulate, so  that  whole  continents  were  covered  by 
them;  since  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  arctic  snows 
so  gained  upon  glacier  motion  and  decrease,  as  to  push 
a  stupendous  field  of  ice  through  British  America  to 
its  southern  highlands,  and  then  over  these  highlands 
into  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence 
Valley,  thus  glaciating  a  great  part  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Continent;  and  since  such  gains  cannot  take  place 
except  by  and  through  sudden  increase  of  precipitation, 
no  more  than  a  river  could  overflow  its  banks  except 
by  and  through  sudden  precipitation;  and  since  the 
great  ice-flood  was  almost  limitless  in  extent  and  in  its 
effect,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  source  of  the 
snows  that  formed  it  and  forced  it  forward  in  its  deso- 


178  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

lating  march,  was  equally  boundless,  and  the  fall  com- 
paratively sudden  and  far-reaching.  But  such  a  source 
manifestly  did  not  exist  upon  the  earth.  It  seems  to  me 
as  vivid  as  the  noon-day  sun,  that  if  this  earth  had  never 
been  a  molten  mass,  it  would  never  have  been  carved 
by  this  mighty  plow  of  the  gods.  For  no  such  world  of 
snows  could  have  been  formed. 

And  now,  as  we  begin  to  examine  the  means  by  which 
the  arctic  glaciers  were  made  the  winding  and  burial 
sheet  of  an  animated  world,  I  would  I  could  impress 
the  reader  with  the  majestic  grandeur  of  the  field  be- 
fore us.  More  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  have 
passed  away  since  by  mere  accident  it  was  discovered 
that  animals  of  a  pre-historic  period  were  entombed 
beneath  and  in  the  frozen  soil  and  snows  adjacent  to  the 
Arctic  Ocean.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century,  vast  numbers  of  these  animals,  mostly  entire, 
and  remarkably  well  preserved,  have  been  found,  so 
that  it  is  now  a  well-authenticated  fact,  that  lands  im- 
mediately under  the  arctic  circle  are  to-day  great 
charnel-houses  of  the  interdiluvian  dead.  For  a  long 
time  an  extensive  trade  in  ivory,  dug  from  the  frozen 
soil,  was  carried  on  by  the  Russian  and  Siberian  trad- 
ers, and  it  is  still  one  of  the  staple  objects  of  commerce 
in  some  parts  of  the  frozen  north. 

An  interesting  account  of  some  remarkable  discov- 
eries in  this  direction  may  be  here  introduced.  The 
following  is  transcribed  from  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia, 
Vol.  IX.,  article  Elephas : 

"  Mammoth  bones  and  tusks  occur  throughout  Russia 
and  more  particularly  in  Eastern  Siberia,  and  in  the 
arctic  marshes.  The  tusks  are  very  numerous,  and  in 
so  high  a  state  of  preservation  that  they  form  an  arti- 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  179 

cle  of  commerce,  and  are  used  in  the  same  works,  as 
what  may  be  termed  the  living  ivory  of  Asia  and 
Africa.  .  .  .  Siberian  fossil  ivory  forms  the  principal 
material  on  which  the  Russian  ivory-turner  works. 
The  tusks  most  abound  in  the  islands  and  shores  of  the 
frozen  sea;  and  the  best  are  found  in  the  countries  near 
the  arctic  circle;  and  in  the  most  eastern  regions, 
where  the  soil  in  the  very  short  summer  is  thawed  only 
at  the  surface,  and  some  years  not  at  all.  ...  In 
1799,  a  Tungusian,  named  Schumachoff,  went  to  seek 
mammoth  tusks  near  the  mouth  of  the  Lena.  One  day 
he  saw  among  the  blocks  of  ice  a  shapeless  mass,  but 
did  not  then  discover  what  it  was.  In  1800  he  per- 
ceived it  was  more  disengaged,  and  in  1801  the  entire 
side  of  the  animal,  and  one  of  its  tusks,  were  quite  free 
from  the  ice.  The  summer  of  1802  was  cold,  but  in 
1803  part  of  the  ice  between  the  earth  and  the  mam- 
moth, for  such  was  the  object,  having  melted  away  more 
rapidly  than  the  rest,  the  enormous  mass  fell  by  its  own 
weight  on  a  bank  of  sand.  In  1804  Schumachoff  came 
to  his  mammoth,  cut  off  his  tusks  and  exchanged  them 
with  a  merchant  for  goods  of  the  value  of  50  rubles 
(about  $38.00). 

"  We  shall  now  let  Mr.  Adams,  from  whose  account 
the  above  is  abridged,  speak  for  himself :  '  Seven  years 
after  the  discovery  of  the  mammoth  I  fortunately  vis- 
ited those  distant  and  desert  regions,  and  I  congratulate 
myself  on  being  able  to  prove  a  fact  which  appeared  so 
improbable.  I  found  the  mammoth  still  in  the  same 
place,  altogether  mutilated.  The  Jukutski  had  cut  off 
the  flesh,  with  which  they  fed  their  dogs,  during  the 
scarcity.  Wild  beasts,  such  as  white  bears,  wolves,  wol- 


180  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

verines  and  foxes,  fed  upon  it,  and  the  traces  of  their 
footsteps  were  seen  around. 

"  'The  skeleton,  almost  entirely  cleared  of  its  flesh, 
remained  whole  except  one  fore-leg.  The  spine  from  the 
head  to  the  os  coccygis,  one  scapula,  the  basin  and  the 
other  three  extremities,  were  still  held  together  by  liga- 
ments, and  parts  of  the  skin.  The  head  was  covered 
with  a  dry  skin;  and  one  of  the  ears  well-preserved  was 
furnished  with  a  tuft  of  hairs.  All  these  parts  have 
necessarily  been  injured  by  7,330  miles  of  transporta- 
tion, yet  the  eyes  have  been  preserved,  and  the  pupil 
of  the  eye  can  still  be  distinguished.  This  mammoth 
was  a  male  with  a  long  mane.  .  .  .  The  skin,  of  which 
I  possess  three-fourths,  is  of  a  dark  gray  color  cov- 
ered with  reddish  and  black  hairs.  The  carcass  of 
which  I  collected  the  bones,  is  9  feet,  4  inches  high, 
and  16  feet,  4  inches  long.  The  tusks  (afterwards  re- 
covered) were  9  feet,  6  inches  long,  and  weighed  to- 
gether 360  pounds.  The  head  alone  weighs  414  pounds. 
The  skin  was  so  heavy  that  ten  persons  found  great 
difficulty  in  transporting  it  to  the  shore.  I  collected 
36  pounds  of  hair  trampled  in  the  sand,  by  bears,  etc.' 
This  traveler  goes  on  to  state  that  the  escarpment  in 
which  the  animal  was  found,  was  more  than  200  feet 
high,  and  made  of  pure,  clean  ice,  and  adds :  '  Curiosity 
led  me  to  ascend  two  other  escarpments  of  the  same 
material  (ice),  where  I  found  in  the  hollows  great  quan- 
tities of  mammoth  tusks,  etc.,  of  astonishing  freshness. 
How  these  things  could  become  collected  there  is  a  ques- 
tion as  curious  as  it  is  difficult  to  solve.'  '  (Italics 
mine. ) 

From  my  notes  taken  at  the  time  the  above  was 
copied,  I  learned  that  this  mammoth,  while  imbedded  in 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  181 

the  escarpment  of  ice,  was  40  feet  above  the  surface  of 
the  earth.  Horses  that  have  fallen  in  the  crevasses  of 
the  Alpine  glaciers,  and  remained  hidden  for  many 
years  ,  have  finally  made  their  appearance  upon  the  sur- 
face of  the  ice.  From  this  it  appears  that  there  is  a 
tendency  in  the  glacier  to  eject  such  remains. 

A  German  traveler,  named  Erman,  many  years  ago, 
visited  the  northern  coast  of  Siberia,  and  has  given, 
some  valuable  information  respecting  that  perpetually 
frozen  land.  In  the  summer-time  the  soil  is  thawed 
for  a  very  few  inches  below  the  surface.  I  think  it  was 
he  that  refers  to  a  well,  sunk  in  the  vicinity  of  Yakutsk 
more  than  a  hundred  feet  through  frozen  mud  and  ice. 
In  a  great  many  places  along  the  Siberian  coast  are 
huge  ice-hills  from  100  to  300  feet  high,  made  up  of 
alternating  beds  of  ice,  frozen  mud,  sand  and  carbonite, 
by  some  called  peat.  Imbedded  in  these  masses  are 
found  vast  quantities  of  mammalian  remains,  valuable 
for  the  immense  amount  of  ivory  they  yield.  The 
islands  along  the  coast  are  apparently  composed  of  these 
frozen  fossils  in  a  matrix  of  mud  and  ice.  The  island 
of  New  Siberia,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  long  and 
thirty  broad,  seems  to  have  been  literally  built  of  these 
materials,  and  whole  cargoes  of  elephantine  ivory  are 
annually  dug  from  their  frozen  hills. 

Almost  the  whole  territory  of  Alaska,  so  far  as 
known,  is  covered  with  evident  glacial  deposits,  and  in 
many  places  mingled  with  abundant  mammoth  remains. 
In  Kotzebue  Sound,  rise  hills  of  considerable  size,  com- 
posed of  ice  of  great  thickness  above  the  water,  and  ex- 
tending below  its  surface  to  an  unknown  depth.  On 
the  top  of  this  glacier  ice,  and  covered  with  carbonite 
and  mud  surmounted  with  snow  and  ice,  are  found 


182  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

mammoth  bones  and  tusks  of  remarkable  freshness.  In 
Europe,  on  the  northern  coast,  these  bones  have  been 
found  in  the  same  kind  of  deposits.  Now  as  the  ten- 
dency of  all  these  northern  drift  deposits  is  to  move 
from  the  north,  southward,  it  is  evident  that  the  arctic 
lands,  near  and  about  the  poles,  previous  to  the  last 
glacial  epoch,  was  as  much  the  land  of  the  living  as  it  is 
now  of  the  dead.  But  before  I  draw  any  definite  con- 
clusion as  to  the  origin  and  cause  of  this  great  catas- 
trophe we  will  still  further  examine  into  the  nature 
and  character  of  these  remains. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  says :  "  In  1772,  Pallas  obtained 
from  Wiljuiskoi  in  latitude  64°,  from  the  banks  of  the 
Wiljui,  a  tributary  of  the  Lena,  the  carcass  of  a  rhin- 
oceros taken  from  the  sand  in  which  it  must  have  re- 
mained congealed  for  ages,  the  soil  of  that  region  being 
always  frozen  to  within  a  slight  depth  of  the  surface. 
This  carcass,  which  was  compared  to  a  '  natural 
mummy,'  emitted  an  odor  like  putrid  flesh,  part  of  the 
skin  being  still  covered  with  short,  crisp  wool,  and  with 
black  and  grey  hairs."  Professor  Brandt,  of  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, under  whose  care  the  above  remarkable  fos- 
sil has  been  made  to  speak  to  a  modern  world,  says: 
"  I  have  been  so  fortunate  as  to  extract  from  the  cavi- 
ties in  the  molar  teeth  of  the  Wiljui  rhinoceros,  a  small 
quantity  of  its  half-chewed  food,  among  which  frag- 
ments of  pine  leaves,  one-half  the  seed  of  a  polygona- 
ceous  plant,  and  very  minute  portions  of  wood  with  por- 
ous cells,  were  still  recognizable.  .  .  .  The  blood  ves- 
sels discovered  in  the  head,  appeared  filled  with  coagu- 
lated blood,  which  in  many  places  showed  its  red  color." 

Thus  if  we  were  cut  off  from  every  other  source  of 
information  as  to  the  character  of  this  animal's  habitat, 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  183 

this  simple  accidental  circumstance  of  finding  a  part 
of  a  cotyledon  of  a  plant  in  the  hollow  tooth  affords 
evidence  the  most  positive,  and  conclusive,  that  the  race 
of  extinct  quadrupeds,  represented  by  these  frozen  and 
mummied  mammals,  in  the  far  north,  not  only  was  ab- 
ruptly and  suddenly  overwhelmed  by  some  mighty  and 
immeasurable  revolution  of  the  forces  of  nature;  but 
it  also  shows  on  what  kind  of  food  the  animal  fed,  on 
the  very  day  it  was  entombed,  and  that  it  was  frozen  up 
on  the  self-same  day,  and  remained  in  that  condition,  as 
it  were,  in  winter's  eternal  midnight,  until  found  and 
dragged  from  its  icy  matrix.  "  In  its  stomach  were 
found  undigested  fragments  of  coniferous  wood,"  and 
therefore  eaten  a  few  hours,  at  most,  before  it  was 
locked  up  in  its  wintry  prison.  Seeds  undigested  and 
so  little  changed  as  to  tell  plainly  what  kind  of  vege- 
tation grew  in  the  land  where  the  animal  lived  and  died, 
have  frequently  been  found  in  the  stomachs  of  these 
mammoths  thus  imbedded  in  ice  and  mud.  "  Even  the 
capillary  blood  vessels,"  still  retaining  their  contents, 
show  that  there  was  not  the  slightest  decomposition  in 
the  body;  all  of  which  force  upon  us  the  conclusion  that 
sudden  and  complete  was  the  destruction  that  involved 
this  wondrous  race  of  pachyderms. 

In  the  year  1843  Middendorf,  of  Russia,  found  sev- 
eral carcasses  of  these  extinct  animals,  some  of  them 
remarkably  well  preserved.  From  one,  the  bulb  of  the 
eye  was  secured,  and  is  now  preserved  in  the  Museum 
at  Moscow.  Among  these  remains  were  found  marine 
fossils  of  northern  species,  characteristic  of  the  northern 
drift,  which  shows  that  both  were  likely  carried  to- 
gether from  the  north,  in  arctic  glaciers.  In  the  year 
1866  many  mammoths  were  found  on  the  arctic  coasts 


184  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

of  Siberia,  most  of  which  still  retained  the  skin  and 
hair.  They  have  also  been  found  floating  in  icebergs 
out  upon  the  open  sea.  One  instance  of  this  is  related 
by  Kotzebue,  who  was  an  indefatigable  worker  among 
the  frozen  seas. 

By  what  natural  means  were  these  animals  entombed  I 
I  trust  this  mysterious  problem  is  approaching  a  philo- 
sophic solution.  Lyell,  from  whom  I  have  drawn 
largely  in  this  chapter,  looking  back  upon  this  great 
charnel-house  of  the  mammoth,  is  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  "  the  ice,  or  congealed  mud,  in  which  the  bod- 
ies of  such  quadrupeds  were  enveloped,  has  never  once 
been  melted  since  the  day  they  perished,  so  as  to  allow 
the  free  percolation  of  water  through  the  matrix;  for, 
had  this  been  the  case,  the  soft  parts  of  the  animals 
could  not  have  remained  undecomposed."  This  con- 
clusion is  arrived  at  by  pure  logic,  and  I  cannot  see  how 
any  man  can  avoid  it.  But  what  agency  on  earth,  or  in 
the  heavens,  known  to  man,  could  have  thus  involved 
them  suddenly  in  ice  and  frozen  mud,  and  kept  them 
thus  entombed  unto  this  day?  It  is  plain  that  a  rise 
and  rush  of  water  over  their  forage  ground  is  utterly 
inadequate  to  account  for  the  facts.  Consequently,  a 
sudden  tilting  of  the  earth's  polar  axis,  by  which,  as 
some  scientists  have  supposed,  the  oceans  of  the  South- 
ern Hemisphere  have  been  transferred  to  the  Northern, 
also  fails  to  explain  the  phenomena.  The  change  of 
climate  was  sudden.  In  one  day  the  animated  races  of 
the  arctic  zone,  then  supporting  a  luxuriant  vegetation, 
were  gathered  down  to  the  grave.  Even  if  a  transfer 
of  oceanic  waters  could  take  place,  this  could  not  have 
changed  the  climate  as  by  a  stroke,  and  have  congealed 
and  sealed  the  land  in  ice ;  and  no  theory  that  does  not 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  185 

agree  with  immediate  and  sudden  change  of  climate, — 
that  locked  the  mammoth  in  "  pure,  clear,  glacier  ice," 
without  rush  of  waters  and  transportation  of  sand  or 
mud, — can  be  accepted,  as  all  debacles  of  urging  floods 
leave  the  principal  features  unexplained. 

Listen  to  the  emphatic  declaration  of  Cuvier :  "  If 
they  had  not  been  frozen  up  as  soon  as  killed  they  must 
quickly  have  decomposed  by  putrefaction."  Again  let 
me  call  the  attention  of  my  readers  to  the  remarks  of 
this  illustrious  man,  in  contemplating  the  physical 
change  the  earth  underwent, — by  means  of  which  per- 
petual winter  involved  the  polar  world.  "  But  this 
eternal  frost  could  not  have  taken  possession  of  the 
region  which  these  animals  inhabited  except  by  the 
same  cause  which  destroyed  them."  A  physical  truth, 
more  profound,  and  more  in  harmony  with  the  annular 
theory  could  not  be  uttered.  The  same  mighty  down- 
rush  of  snows,  from  the  earth's  annular  system,  was 
the  "  eternal  frost  "  that  took  "  possession  of  the  region 
which  these  animals  inhabited,"  and,  of  course,  was  the 
"  cause  which  destroyed  them."  Those  telluric-cosmic 
snows  took  possession  of  the  whole  polar  world. 

Having  shown  how  necessary  it  is  to  admit  that  the 
cause  was  such  as  to  produce  immediate  death  and  im- 
mediate refrigeration,  let  me  ask  the  reader  to  find,  if 
possible,  any  other  competent  cause  than  such  a  fall  of 
snows.  Now  let  us  see  how  natural  and  how  neces- 
sary such  a  snowfall  is,  and  how  admirably  it  accords 
with  facts.  The  question  to  be  determined  is:  What 
cause,  suddenly  and  immediately  destroyed  the  mam- 
moth and  his  congeners,  and  froze  them  up  in  glacier 
ice,  and  kept  them  there  till  released  by  solar  heat  ? 

Is  this  proposition  too  exclusive  ?     Since  many  of 


186  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

these  animals  are  really  found  in  glacier  ice  "  pure  and 
clear";  since  they  have  been  found  in  icebergs  in  the 
open  sea,  and  since  an  iceberg  is  a  fragment  of  glacier 
ice;  since  those  which  are  found  imbedded  in  mud  on 
the  plains  of  Siberia,  have  evidently  been  dropped  from 
icebergs,  when  that  land  was  under  the  sea, — for  mar- 
ine arctic  fossils  are  sometimes  found  with  them  (and 
if  even  one  be  found  having  these  associations,  it  is 
strong  evidence  that  all  found  in  that  region  were  once 
frozen  in  glacier  ice,  and  floated  thither  in  icebergs 
and  dropped  on  the  floor  of  the  sea,  among  the  living 
and  dead  fauna  of  the  deep), — since  the  same  may  be 
said  of  the  Alaskan  remains;  since  it  is  well-known  that 
these  remains  are  fresher  and  newer  near  the  polar  sea, 
and  must  therefore  have  been  released  from  the  glacier 
in  more  recent  times;  and  since,  if  they  had  been 
originally  buried  in  the  mud,  without  being  trans- 
ported, they  must  have  been  ground  up  by  the  great 
continental  glacier;  and  that  so  many  of  them  are  en- 
tire, and  well  preserved  even  in  the  mud;  and,  finally, 
since  their  remains  are  yet  being  found  in  the  glaciers 
on  the  Siberian  coast,  and  frequently  dredged  up  from 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean*  whither  they  must  have  fallen 
from  icebergs;  we  shall  hardly  escape  from  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  mammalians  now  found  fossil  in  frozen 
mud  in  the  polar  world  or  near  it,  were  originally  a  part 
and  parcel  of  the  mighty  moving  glacier;  and  that  as 
the  last  remnant  of  that  glacier,  the  present  ice-cap  of 
the  arctic  world  is  still  moving  southward  and  down- 
ward and  giving  up  its  "  mighty  dead." 

As  we  stand  with  this  great  problem  before  us,  in 
the  light  of  the  annular  theory  every  shadow  disappears. 

*  Geikie'a  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  300. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  187 

We  see  the  mammoth  frozen  up  in  a  glacier,  and  we 
know  that  that  glacier  was  originally  snow;  and  we  also 
know  he  was  frozen  up  in  that  mass,  in  the  land  in 
which  he  lived,  immediately  after  he  died;  or,  that  he 
perished  in  his  grave  of  snow,  and  has  ever  since  re- 
mained there.  Then  it  was  snow  that  imbedded  him  in 
ice.  That  is,  a  fall  of  snow  was  the  "  cause  that  de- 
stroyed him  " — i.e.,  was  the  "  eternal  frost  that  took 
possession  of  the  region."  Now,  is  there  any  possibil- 
ity of  escaping  this  conclusion  ?  They  are  imbedded  in 
ice  that  once  was  snow,  and  there  they  have  remained 
from  the  day  they  fed  on  polygonaceous  plants  in  that 
region.  Then  all  that  remains  for  us  to  do  is  to  find  a 
source  of  snow  competent  to  supply  it  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities. 

Since  we  know  that  every  drop  of  the  terrestrial 
waters  must  have  come  from  the  earth's  annular  sys- 
tem at  some  age  of  the  world,  and  since  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  some  of  those  waters  fell  upon  the  earth  in 
early  historic  times,  and  since  it  must  be  admitted  that 
they  fell  largely  as  snow  in  the  polar  regions;  and  since, 
if  not  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  waters  now  on  the 
earth  had  fallen  in  the  form  of  snow  it  would  have  cov- 
ered the  entire  land-surface  more  than  30,000  feet 
deep;  and  since  it  can  scarcely  be  possible  that  one-tenth 
of  the  oceanic  waters  did  not  fall  in  polar  lands,  as 
snow;  the  annular  system  comes  boldly  forth  as  a  com- 
petent source  of  the  snows  that  entombed  the  mam- 
moth and  his  compeers.  And  when  we  see  we  are 
forced  to  find  a  source  not  only  for  a  vast  amount,  but 
also  one  capable  of  affording  it  so  suddenly  and  so  rapid- 
ly as  to  suddenly  change  the  climate  and  involve  the 


188  The  Earth's  Annular  tiystem. 

land  in  death,  we  may  emphatically  declare  that  that 
source  is  the  only  one  that  can  be  found ! 

Imagine,  then,  those  giant  quadrupeds  feeding  in 
their  natural  habitat,  until  on  a  certain  day,  in  autumn 
of  the  year,  when  seeds  were  ripe,  the  over-canopying 
belt  of  snows,  having  been  approaching  for  ages  that 
point  where  it  is  no  longer  moored  to  the  skies,  poised 
for  a  space  in  equilibrio,  begins  its  downward  course  on 
the  fated  earth.  In  a  moment's  time  a  land  that  was 
rich  and  fat  with  life, — a  world  apparently  launched 
in  perfection  from  the  hand  of  the  Great  Architect, — 
is  chilled  with  eternal  snow  and  frost.  Inch  by  inch, 
foot  by  foot,  and  yard  by  yard,  the  snows  fill  the  plains, 
fill  the  forests,  fill  the  valleys,  and  chill  the  seas.  Yes- 
terday a  world  pregnant  with  exuberant  life;  to-day 
rocked  with  the  mightiest  revulsion,  wrecked  in  the 
shock  of  ruin  and  disorder  and  discord,  then  wrapped  in 
the  white  pall  of  universal  death. 

There  may  be  some  minor  mysteries  involved  in  the 
peculiar  distribution  of  these  animal  remains  in  some 
parts  of  the  drift,  which  at  first  sight  will  appear  irre- 
concilable to  the  theory  here  advanced.  These  will 
vanish  as  the  theory  in  its  almost  boundless  conception 
is  understood  by  scientists.  I  have  no  space  in  this 
volume  to  consider  these  in  detail,  and  a  brief  consid- 
eration of  them  would  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  general 
reader. 

Having  therefore  taken  the  same  position  that  intel- 
ligent geologists  of  all  schools  have  adopted,  and  must 
stand  to,  viz.,  that  the  great  catastrophe  which  over- 
whelmed the  antediluvian  animals  at  the  poles  and  en- 
cased them  in  their  icy  tomb,  was  a  sudden  one;  and 
that  the  same  material  that  entombed  them  was  the 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  189 

"  cause  or  agent  of  their  destruction,"  as  Cuvier  de- 
clares ;  if  we  follow  this  line  of  thought  to  its  legitimate 
conclusion  we  are  finally  brought  face  to  face  with 
tellurio-cosmic  falls  of  snow.  For  the  material  that 
entombed  them  is  ice — glacier  ice — and  this  was 
originally  snow!  And  it  was  snow  that  fell  upon  the 
animated  earth  and  froze  it  up.  But  such  a  fall  of 
snows  could  not  possibly  have  accumulated  in  the  at- 
mosphere as  it  now  does  and  have  fallen  therefrom! 
Therefore  it  must  have  come  from  a  source  lying  be- 
yond the  atmosphere.  But  beyond  the  atmosphere 
were  the  "  waters  above  the  firmament,"  recognized  by 
primeval  man.  This  recognition  has  been  transmitted 
to  us  by  tradition  and  mythology  in  such  a  way  as  to 
prove  that  a  part, — the  last  remnant — of  those  waters, 
or  rather  vapors,  fell  upon  the  earth  after  man  came 
upon  the  scene;  fell  too  at  that  time  as  snows  at  the 
poles,  and  as  a  flood  of  water  in  warmer  latitudes.  But 
if  water  existed  beyond  the  region  of  atmospheric 
clouds  during  that  early  historic  period,  or  pre-historic 
period,  if  we  choose  to  call  it,  then  we  know  they  were 
there  in  the  mammalian  age.  That  is,  we  know  that 
while  the  mammoth  fed  on  arctic  vegetation  there  was 
a  mighty  over-arching  fund  of  vapors,  either  frozen  or 
otherwise,  revolving  around  the  earth, — a  mass  of 
vapors  competent  to  involve  the  earth  in  ruin.  What 
has  become  of  those  vapors?  They  are  not  there  now; 
and  the  oceans  are  on  the  earth,  and  they  stand  deeper 
to-day,  the  world  round,  than  they  did  before  the  last 
glacial  epoch.  If  we  deny  the  existence  of  this  great 
abyss  of  snows  and  waters,  so  frequently  referred  to  in 
the  oldest  documents  and  legends  of  man,  we  plant 
ourselves  as  opposed  to  law,  and  we  will  forever  grope 


190  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

in  darkness,  and  never  find  the  true  cause  of  the  extinc- 
tion of  the  prototypes  of  mammalian  races,  including 
pre-glacial,  and,  it  may  be,  an  inter-glacial  race  of  men. 
On  the  other  hand,  as  this  investigation  shows,  if  we 
admit  the  former  existence  of  rings  and  belts  of  tellu- 
rio-cosmic  matter  which  law  requires,  a  thousand  dark 
things  are  illuminated  that  otherwise  meet  with  unsat- 
isfactory explanation,  or  are  wholly  left  in  the  night. 

We  may  add  strength  to  our  position  by  other  evi- 
dence. It  is  more  than  probable  that  if  the  mammoth 
was  destroyed  by  a  downfall  of  such  snows  as  is  here 
claimed,  that  previous  to  its  fall,  as  in  all  former  cases, 
— as  in  the  case  of  the  Noachian  deluge,  for  instance, — 
the  over-canopying  fund  of  vapors  acted  as  a  mighty 
robe  to  the  earth,  keeping  out  the  cold  of  space  and 
confining  terrestrial  warmth,  as  well  as  equally  distrib- 
uting the  solar  heat  over  the  globe.  This  equalization 
of  temperature  as  in  a  mighty  greenhouse,  would 
melt  away  all  existing  glaciers  and  clothe  the  earth  in 
verdure  to  the  very  poles.  Let  us  not  cast  this  concep- 
tion aside  without  reason.  It  is  plain  that  the  solar 
beam  of  heat  could  reach  the  earth  in  a  modified  degree 
only,  and  earth  would  bloom  as  under  a  glass  roof  col- 
ored to  prevent  excessive  light. 

!N"ow  it  would  seem  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  pro- 
duce evidence  to  prove  that  the  earth  during  the  mam- 
malian period  did  enjoy  a  greenhouse  climate.  The 
mere  fact  that  these  huge  quadrupeds  lived  in  arctic  re- 
gions in  vast  numbers  is  proof  that  such  masses  of  ice 
and  snow  as  now  are  there  were  not  there  then.  The 
mere  fact  that  those  animals  were  larger  than  their 
representatives  of  this  age  shows  that  they  lived  in  a 
different  atmospheric  environment, — that  the  atmos- 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  191 

phere  was  heavier,  possessing  more  buoyant  power  by 
the  mere  pressure  and  presence  of  a  vast  ocean  of  va- 
pors in  its  higher  regions.  But  the  ordinary  reader 
may  need  something  more  than  mere  reference  to  these 
things.  I  will  therefore  briefly  refer  to  some  direct 
evidence. 

Wherever  we  are  able  to  find  marine  shells  imbedded 
in  the  clays  and  other  formations  immediately  below 
the  glacial  deposits  they  are  known  to  be  the  repre- 
sentatives of  warmer  waters  proving  that  warmer  seas 
then  occupied  these  northern  lands.  The  presence  of 
tropical  and  sub-tropical  animal  fossils  in  what  are 
termed  pre-glacial  formations  representatives  of  those 
now  occupying  the  warm  regions  of  Asia,  Africa  and 
America,  shows  that  animals  of  the  tropics  migrated 
to  the  far  north.  Among  the  frozen  cliffs  of  Siberia 
and  Alaska  are  buried  products  of  a  vegetation  of  a 
warmer  world.  All  these  evidences  exist  in  the  super- 
ficial formations  of  Great  Britain  and  Europe,  as  well 
as  North  America.*  They  are  the  index  finger  of  time, 
pointing  to  a  period  of  sub-tropical  warmth  in  lands 
sleeping  in  eternal  snows.  But  this  is  the  very  condi- 
tion of  climate  needed  to  harmonize  with  the  annular 
theory,  and  I  take  it  as  one  more  link  in  the  great  chain 
of  evidence. 

Now,  as  we  have  here  laid  before  the  reader  a  com- 
petent and,  without  doubt,  the  true  cause  or  source  of 
the  snows  that  overwhelmed  the  mammoth  and  his  co- 
temporaries,  have  we  not  also  in  the  annular  system 
a  true  cause  and  competent  source  of  all  the  glacial 
epochs  the  world  has  ever  known?  This  warm  period 

*  See  Geikie'a  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  and  any  of  the  geological 
reports  on  the  surveys  of  the  States. 


192  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

immediately  preceding  excessive  refrigeration  can  be 
no  accidental  intervention.  It  was  the  product  and  re- 
sult of  eternal  law.  We  find  it,  as  previously  intimated, 
again  and  again  taking  its  place  in  its  own  proper  order, 
in  the  harmonious  gradation  so  conspicuous  in  the 
geologic  column;  and  anyone  must  see  that  each  repeti- 
tion of  it  must  add  new  strength  to  the  edifice  we  are 
building. 

But  it  is  evident  that  other  conditions  must  follow, 
which  are  so  related,  and  dependent  upon  these  stated 
previous  conditions  (as  a  warm  climate  followed  by  re- 
frigeration), that  we  must  attempt  to  hunt  them  up. 
I  have  shown  that  the  natural  associate  of  a  downfall 
of  snows  from  on  high  was  a  subsequent  down-rush  of 
water  in  medial,  or  extra-tropical  latitudes.  Now  if 
we  find  in  the  record  before  us  that  immediately  suc- 
ceeding the  great  fall  of  the  mammalian  snows  there 
followed  a  vast  down-rush  of  devouring  floods,  the 
philosophic  reader  will  not  fail  to  see  that  the  natural 
network  of  evidence  is  growing  stronger  and  stronger, 
and  wider  and  wider  at  each  step.  In  the  chapter  on 
"  Geological  Topographical  Evidence,"  the  reader  will 
find  in  addition  to  the  evidence  I  now  present  the  most 
overwhelming  testimony  naturally  pointing  to  such 
correlative  conditions. 

I  will  first  point  the  reader  to  the  manifest  evidence 
contained  in  what  are  known  as  the  modified  drifts 
along  the  valleys  of  the  world.  I  say  valleys  of  the 
world,  for  they  are  not  confined  to  glaciated  districts. 
Says  Dana  *  :  "  The  fact  that  such  a  flood,  vast  beyond 
conception,  was  the  final  event  in  the  history  of  the 
glacier,  is  manifest  in  the  peculiar  stratification  of  the 

*  Dana's  "  Manual."  pages  552  and  553. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  193 

flood-made  deposits,  and  in  the  spread  of  the  stratified 
drift  southward  along  the  Mississippi  Valley  to  the 
Gulf,  as  first  made  known  by  Hilgard.  Only  under  the 
rapid  contribution  of  an  immense  amount  of  sand  and 
gravel  and  of  water  from  so  unlimited  a  source  could 
such  deposits  have  accumulated."  Again,  "  we  learn 
that  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  was  probably  one 
immense  lake,  and  that  the  waters  spread  far  south  over 
the  States.  .  .  .  The  Mississippi  waters,  in  the  Cham- 
plain  era,  below  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  had  an  average 
breadth  of  fifty  miles,  and  along  by  Tennessee  and 
Northern  Mississippi  of  seventy-five  miles;  so  that  it 
was  indeed  a  great  stream."  This  vast  flood  is  supposed 
by  Dana  to  have  resulted  from  the  rapid  melting  of  the 
great  expanse  of  glaciers;  and  he  cites  the  spring  floods 
of  this  age  caused  by  the  melting  snows.  But  the 
melting  of  snows  and  glacier  ice  afford  no  similarity. 
Even  spring  floods  are  the  productions  of  rains,  as  any 
one  ought  to  know,  upon  fields  of  snow  and  ice,  though 
the  latter  by  its  melting  necessarily  augmented  the 
flood;  yet  it  is  known  that  the  very  presence  of  ice  in 
the  streams  of  a  river  system  is  a  great  safeguard  to  a 
more  sudden  rise  of  rushing  floods.  By  it  the  flood  is 
prolonged  and  modified  in  degree,  and  the  presence  of 
a  continental  glacier  would  not  only  check  the  natural 
or  ordinary  rainfall,  but  its  melting,  while  it  would 
vastly  extend  the  duration  of  a  flood,  must  have  been 
slow  indeed  were  it  not  for  excessive  rains.  But 
imagine  a  rainy  season  over  the  surface  of  the  ice  fields 
of  the  present  polar  world !  Imagine,  if  you  can,  majes- 
tic and  sweeping  floods  occasioned  by  the  melting  of 
arctic  glaciers.  It  is  neither  reasonable  nor  natural 
that  the  great  ice  sheet  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere 


194  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

should  melt  so  rapidly  as  to  fill  all  the  tens  of  thousands 
of  valleys  radiating  from  it  over  the  continents  south- 
ward. And  to  suppose  that  such  melting  was  greatly 
aided  by  ordinary  rains  is  also  unnatural,  so  that  it 
seems  evident  that  a  flood  in  a  glacial  age  requires  a 
rain  from  a  super-aerial  source,  and  such  a  fall  of  waters 
must  have  been  sudden  and  terrific.  Besides,  the  very 
condition  of  the  stratified  superficial  beds  shows  that 
the  flood  came  and  passed  away  before  the  glacier  had 
nearly  subsided.  "  There  is  direct  evidence  that  the 
flood  reached  a  maximum  just  before  the  close  of  the 
melting."*  Now  it  must  be  plain  that  if  this  flood  was 
occasioned  solely  by  melting  glaciers,  unaided  by  de- 
scending waters,  this  fact  could  not  be  determined. 
The  change  in  the  deposits  would  be  so  gradual  that  no 
definite  point  of  change  could  be  readily  determined. 
"  The  transition  was  a  sudden  one,  as  the  abrupt  tran- 
sitions in  the  beds  prove."*  The  same  evidence  may 
be  gathered  from  other  continents, — from  almost  every 
valley  in  the  north  temperate  zone  the  testimony  is 
the  same.f  So  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  burden  the 
reader  with  a  detail  of  facts  when  he  must  see  that  the 
evidence  is  conclusive  that  before  the  close  of  the  last 
great  age  of  ice  the  Northern  Hemisphere  was  swept  by 
a  stupendous  deluge  of  waters  strongly  pointing  to 
the  source  heretofore  named.  Those  upper  waters, 
even  though  they  may  have  been  in  the  form  of  vapor 


*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  554. 

1 1  might  largely  quote  from  European  authors  in  confirmation 
of  this.  I  will  refer  the  reader  to  the  twenty-ninth  chapter  of 
Geikie's  "  Great  Ice  Age "  for  an  exhaustive  treatise  upon  this 
feature  of  post-glacial  beds,  also  to  Sir  J.  Lubbock's  "  Prehistoric 
Times,"  and  fourth  volume,  page  305  et  seq.  of  the  Trans.  Geol. 
Soc.  Also  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  556. 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  195 

in  a  greatly  attenuated  state,  possessed  the  power  of 
absorbing  and  diffusing  the  solar  heat,  and  their  very 
presence  in  the  atmosphere  in  medial  latitudes  must 
have  largely  assisted  in  melting  the  ice,  and  perhaps 
for  unknown  centuries  the  falling  waters  and  the  melt- 
ing glaciers  deluged  the  land.  But  putting  aside  all 
other  questions  we  see  that  the  converging  testimony 
of  the  continents  is  that  an  epoch  of  stupendous  cat- 
aclysms of  water  followed  immediately  the  epoch  of 
down-rushing  and  all-involving  snows, — the  very  thing 
the  annular  theory  demands. 

But  there  is  one  lacking  feature  that  we  must  now 
refer  to.  It  will  be  shown  in  another  chapter  how 
necessary  it  is  that  all  such  downfalls  of  water  and 
snows  when  they  have  receded  to  the  ocean  and  found 
their  own  natural  level,  must  finally  result  in  continen- 
tal upheaval  and  mountain-making.  Let  us  see  whether 
this  expected  sequence  follows  in  order.  Suppose  this 
triplicity  of  changes  cannot  in  this  case  be  established ! 
Then  it  must  be  seen  that  the  annular  theory  shall  have 
met  with  a  defeat.  But  if  it  be  found  without  a  doubt 
that  the  continents  or  even  a  part  of  them  were  lifted, 
attended  or  not  attended  with  visible  plication,  I  will 
certainly  be  permitted  to  take  it  as  evidence  corrobora- 
tive of  the  views  heretofore  defined. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  coast  of  our  own  country, 
for  bordering  the  oceans  must  the  evidence  be  found, 
if  found  anywhere.  In  a  great  many  places  around  the 
coast  of  North  Amercia  we  find  terraces  of  the  Cham- 
plain  period  that  must  have  been  formed  in  the  sea, 
for  the  reason  that  marine  fossils  are  contained  in  them. 
At  San  Pedro  they  are  now  from  60  to  80  feet  above 
the  ocean,  showing  that  the  coast  has  arisen  more  than 


196  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

to  that  height  since  they  were  formed.  They  stand  as 
conspicuous  way-marks  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Also  in 
the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco  there  are  many 
shell-bearing  formations  of  this  period  more  than  70 
feet  above  the  tide.  Still  further  south,  on  the  Mexican 
Coast,  they  rise  almost  to  an  equal  height.  There  is 
but  little  doubt  that  an  examination  of  the  Pacific 
Coast  will  reveal  many  such  beds  between  Oregon  and 
Alaska.  The  eastern  coast,  however,  north  of  Cape 
Cod,  presents  the  most  remarkable  evidence  of  eleva- 
tion in  the  quaternary  at  the  close  of  the  glacial 
period.  It  would  require  much  space  to  specify  all 
points.  We  will  therefore  epitomize  from  Dana,*  who 
condenses  from  a  vast  field  as  follows :  "  The  elevated 
sea-border  formations  that  have  been  described  prove 
that  in  the  Champlain  period  the  land  where  such  for- 
mations occur  was  at  the  water's  level."  (Italics  mine.) 
From  a  critical  examination  of  these  beds  by  many 
competent  geologists,  from  Lyell  down,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  New  England  mountains  were  elevated, 
immediately  after  the  Champlain  flood-beds  were  de- 
posited, to  the  extent  of  450  or  500  feet.  The  same 
authority  says  in  another  connection :  "  We  hence  learn 
that  in  the  Champlain  era  salt  waters  spread  over  a 
large  coast  region  of  Maine,  and  up  the  St.  Lawrence 
nearly  to  Lake  Ontario."  The  sea  was  500  feet  deep 
at  Montreal.  The  remains  of  whales  and  seals  have 
been  found  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Valley,  and  a  part  of 
the  skeleton  of  a  whale  was  dug  from  the  soil  60  feet 
above  Lake  Champlain.  From  these  it  is  demonstrated 
that  some  portion  of  North  America  was  elevated,  and 
that  mountain-making  was  a  part  of  the  work  of  the 

"  Dana's  "  Manual  on  the  Quaternary." 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  197 

Champlain  period,  which  immediately  followed  the 
great  flood  of  the  glacial  period. 

Turning  our  attention  to  the  Old  World  we  find  the 
same  unmistakable  evidence  there.  Around  the  Brit- 
ish coast,  and  the  shores  of  Norway  and  Sweden,  there 
has  been  a  general  elevation  of  the  land  from  300  to 
500  feet.  Geikie,  after  reviewing  the  testimony 
afforded  by  an  immense  number  of  shell-bearing  ter- 
races in  the  various  regions,  summarizes  as  follows: 
"  During  the  deposition  of  the  clays  and  sands  with 
arctic  shells,  the  land,  as  we  have  seen,  stood  relatively 
at  a  lower  level.  .  .  .  The  sea  continuing  to  retire,  the 
British  Islands  became  at  last  united  to  the  continent."* 

Thus  it  appears  that  men  who  stand  highest  in  au- 
thority on  these  especial  subjects  without  any  particu- 
lar theory  to  champion,  have  laid,  as  it  were,  the  cap- 
ping-stone  demanded  by  the  annular  hypothesis.  Its 
first  demand  was  that  there  should  be  among  the  last 
of  terrestrial  revolutions  a  mighty  down-rush  of  snows 
upon  a  tropical  or  sub-tropical  world.  It  came,  and  it 
came,  too,  upon  a  world  of  life  and  bloom!  But  this 
demanded  its  associated  downfall  of  water  from  the 
super-aerial  "deep,"  and  its  demands  were  responded  to 
through  the  open  flood-gates  of  the  skies.  But  these  re- 
quired that  the  foundations  of  the  continents  should 
respond  to  the  measureless  increase  of  energy  exerted 
by  additional  oceanic  pressure,  through  the  evolution 
of  heat  and  rock-expansion, — a  response,  a  force  which 
neither  mountain  height  nor  breadth  of  continents 
could  withstand.  Earth  trembled  at  the  demand,  and 
the  mountains  lifted  their  heads  to  loftier  heights. 
What  theory  heretofore  advanced  has  explained  these 

*"  Great  Ice  Age,"  pages  321  and  322. 


198  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

things  ?  When  we  see  that  the  co-linking  of  these  great 
changes  necessarily  requires  an  explanation  not  only  of 
the  wondrous  changes  themselves,  but  that  it  also  de- 
mands a  theory  that  accounts  for  the  marvelous  order 
in  which  they  have  transpired; — for  the  cause  of  this 
co-linking; — when  we  see  the  earth  during  a  vast  period 
of  time  characterized  by  a  warm  climate  and  a  vigorous 
vegetation,  just  previous  to  refrigeration,  precisely  as 
in  the  Adamite  period,  and  know  that  the  latter  was, 
with  scarcely  a  doubt,  caused  by  super-aerial  vapors 
spreading  from  the  equator  to  the  poles;  when  we  know 
that  a  spreading  thus  of  vapors,  while  at  the  very  time 
it  must  force  a  warm  climate  upon  the  earth,  is  but  an 
inevitable  preparation  for  a  down-rush  of  snows,  we  can 
readily  understand  the  reason  of  this  order.  And 
when  we  see  the  far-reaching  and  sudden  result  in  the 
extermination  of  specific  forms,  in  mountain  making,  in 
the  advent  of  new  forms;  when  we  see  this  exhaustless 
energy  used  in  upheaval,  always  directed  against  the 
continents  from  the  ocean-world,  we  are  forced  to  ad- 
mit that  some  portions  of  the  ocean's  bed  have  been 
forced  deeper  into  its  plastic  foundation  by  increased 
pressure, — the  very  thing  the  spreading  and  declining 
of  annular  matter  must  have  effected. 

Then,  again,  as  we  see  this  annular  matter  remain- 
ing in  the  firmament,  and  becoming  the  primary  cause 
of  the  warm  period  of  the  Eden  world,  and  the  decline 
of  that  matter  the  cause  of  its  destruction,  it  requires 
no  strain  of  reason  to  claim  that  all  such  changes  have 
had  the  same  all-competent  cause.  Now  the  fact  that 
such  vapors  did  remain  on  high  until  the  time  of  the 
historic  deluge,  and  produced  that  deluge,  warrants  the 
conclusion  that  the  post-glacial  floods  had  the  same  an- 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  199 

nular  origin.  And  as  it  is  utterly  unreasonable  and 
unphilosophic  to  claim  that  the  melting  of  great  con- 
tinental glaciers  could  form  floods  "  vast  beyond  con- 
ception," unless  succeeding  canopies  of  annular  matter 
forced  a  tropic  temperature  upon  the  frozen  world,  and 
as  that  matter  was  present  in  and  beyond  the  firmament 
till  the  Noachian  flood,  the  very  means  necessary  to 
force  such  temperature  existed  at  the  very  time  that 
earth  was  wrapped  in  a  mantle  of  snows  and  ice,  and 
could  not  have  descended  from  the  annular  form  with- 
out over-canopying  the  earth,  as  with  a  greenhouse 
roof;  I  feel  then  that  I  am  justified  in  the  claim  that 
the  great  telluric  glaciers  of  recent  geologic  times  were 
melted  under  the  tropic  influence  of  the  annular  vapors 
and  accompanying  deluges  from  that  source. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  solar  heat  diffused  among 
these  upper  vapors  (after  they  once  became  a  part  of 
the  attenuated  atmosphere)  by  constant  accumulation 
and  radiation  necessitated  excessive  rains  in  medial  lati- 
tudes. The  cold  air  moving  from  the  frigid  continents 
toward  the  warmer  oceans  and  the  warmer  equatorial 
lands  becoming  laden  with  the  moisture  of  those 
regions  and  returning  in  the  circuit  of  currents  must, 
it  seems  to  me,  have  constantly  deluged  the  lands  adja- 
cent the  ice-fields;  and  no  doubt  much  of  the  phenomena 
attributed  to  diluvial  action  in  glaciated  regions  can 
thus  be  accounted  for.  However,  one  thing  seems  very 
evident:  such  deluges  need  and  imperatively  demand 
a  tropical  temperature,  and  a  tropical  temperature  in- 
volving a  frozen  world  emphatically  demands  an  annu- 
lar system! 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  very  fact  that  the  earth  was 
even  once  glaciated  compels  us  to  admit,  not  only  that 


200  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

an  annular  system  did  exist  as  its  philosophic  cause  but 
also  that  such  a  system  was  necessary  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  great  ice  fields.  What  feature  of  the  "  Great 
Ice  Age  "  is  there  that  does  not  confidently  point  us  to 
that  all-sufficient  builder  and  destroyer?  A  ring  of 
vapors  and  the  telluric  and  cosmic  dust  it  must  have 
gathered  throughout  almost  infinite  time,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  quaternary  or  mammoth  period,  declined 
from  the  ring-system  over  the  equator,  into  the  earth's 
atmosphere.  As  a  pure  result  before  explained,  this 
ring  as  it  declined  into  the  resisting  atmosphere,  spread 
laterally  into  the  form  of  a  belt,  and  in  its  effort  to 
reach  the  poles  of  the  earth  overarched  the  planet  and 
formed  a  greenhouse  or  tropical  world.  Thus  per- 
petually falling  and  perpetually  widening,  in  the  course 
of  time  its  polar  edges  hung,  as  it  were,  betwixt 
heaven  and  earth,  pass  that  point  where  they  can  no 
longer  hang  in  air,  and  they  at  once,  as  if  broken  from 
their  anchorage  in  the  skies,  descend  to  the  surface. 
Upon  the  very  fields  of  luxuriant  and  abounding  life 
that  the  overarching  vapors  had  necessitated,  they  fell 
as  snow,  and  overran  the  earth.  As  unknown  centuries 
pass  away,  amid  flood  and  tempest  they  reach  the  ocean, 
and  the  latter  climbs  the  receding  shores,  and  the 
ocean's  bed  goes  down  but  to  force  its  plastic  founda- 
tion under  the  continents.  This  intruding  mass  of  mol- 
ten or  plastic  mineral  must  lift  the  margin  of  the  con- 
tinents as  no  other  force  can,  and  the  crumpling  and 
rupture  of  strata  in  many  places  must  give  rise  to  vol- 
canic phenomena.  How  strange,  and  yet  how  consistent 
and  philosophic,  that  the  exhaustless  and  measureless 
energy  of  the  molten  earth,  transferred,  I  might  say, 
to  the  annular  system,  and  after  millions  of  years  had 


The  Glacial  Epochs.  201 

rolled  away,  be  spent  in  making  the  aqueous  crust  of  the 
earth, — lifting  its  rocky  frame  to  mountain  peaks  by 
under-thrusts, — and  sinking  some  portions  of  its  crust 
to  abyssal  depths. 

It  is  plain  that  if  the  fall  of  annular  snows  be  the 
true  cause  of  the  last  glacial  period,  as  here  shown,  it 
is  reasonable  to  claim  that  there  must  have  been  glacial 
periods  of  greater  or  less  importance  in  almost  all  the 
geologic  ages,  and  that  the  same  cause  essentially  pro- 
duced them  all.  We  will,  therefore,  give  a  brief  chap- 
ter upon  this  grand  and  exhaustless  subject. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

A  BRIEF  EEVIEW  OF  THE  GEOLOGIC  AGES  AND  A 

PRESENTATION   OF  THE  EVIDENCE  THEY 

AFFORD  OF  PRIMITIVE  GLACIATION, 

ETC. 

Let  us  suppose  that  by  some  great  change  in  the 
ocean's  level  the  present  continents,  with  their  abund- 
ant evidences  of  glacial  action  should  become  covered 
by  its  waters.  In  the  course  of  ages  the  way-marks  of 
this  age  would  become  deeply  buried  under  the  detrital 
matter  of  other  lands.  The  countless  millions  of  bould- 
ers now  seen  upon  the  surface  where  the  northern  drift 
prevails,  and  denoting  the  track  of  the  glacier  or  the 
iceberg;  the  vast  beds  of  morainic  matter;  the  assorted 
sands  and  clays;  the  striated  surfaces,  and  the  living 
vegetation,  now  so  well  known  to  the  botanists,  would 
become  hidden  under  a  covering  of  silt,  which  in  the 
lapse  of  ages  would  become  solid  rock.  Suppose,  then, 
the  eyes  of  the  future  geologist  in  an  age  to  come 
should  investigate  this  continent  again  heaved  from 
the  deep.  What  signs  of  our  last  glacial  period  would 
he  see  ?  Striations  obliterated  could  afford  him  no  evi- 
dence, and  only  where  denudation  and  erosion  should 
accidentally  expose  the  buried  drift  could  he  find  evi- 
dence that  the  quaternary  was  an  age  of  ice.  He 
might  notice  the  paucity  of  fossils,  an  old  drift  bed,  or 
peat  swamp.  With  these  he  might  find  an  occasional 
tropical  plant,  but  with  these  he  could  come  to  no  posi- 
tive conclusion  as  to  the  climate.  The  plain  evidence 
we  now  have  of  alternate  warmth  and  refrigeration 


A  Brief  Review.  203 

would  be  in  great  measure  lost,  or  so  confused  that  it 
would  take  a  long  time  of  careful  and  patient  investiga- 
tion, and  comparing  of  testimony  by  the  geologists  of 
the  world,  before  any  definite  conclusion  could  be  at- 
tained. Such  difficulties  as  these  perpetually  confuse 
the  investigators  of  this  day.  In  the  grand  carbonifer- 
ous piles  there  is  the  most  unimpeachable  evidence  that 
it  was  an  age  of  tropical  growth,  in  the  lycopods,  ferna 
and  calamites  of  that  era;  but  in  the  very  heart  of  this 
evidence  we  find  the  track  of  the  mighty  glacier.  In 
the  penman  age,  amid  its  abundant  evidence  of  a  tropi- 
cal life;  in  the  Eden  world  of  the  tertiaries,  the  great 
ice  king  has  again  and  again  set  his  heavy  feet.  Then, 
just  as  we  see  in  the  last  great  ice  age  strong  evidence 
of  warmth  at  the  very  foot  of  the  glacier  we  may  expect 
to  find  this  conflict  of  evidence  in  all  ages.  No  won- 
der, then,  as  we  look  into  the  archsean  formations  we 
find  the  same  difficulties.  But  as  we  admit  the  sudden 
downfalls  of  snow  in  the  efforts  of  the  upper  deep  to 
find  its  level — the  ocean — we  can  readily  see  why  we 
find  so  much  evidence  of  death  in  the  midst  of  life.  As 
it  seems  impossible  to  explain  these  mysteries,  so  num- 
erous in  the  quaternary,  without  the  aid  of  these  great 
cataclysms,  so  we  will  ever  find  it  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance to  have  their  assistance  in  every  geologic  age.  The 
great  objection  to  these  sudden  changes  has  been  the 
want  of  a  competent  cause;  but  a  source  having  been 
found,  not  only  a  competent  but  a  necessary  one,  there 
must  needs  be  much  less  difficulty  in  the  road  of  the 
geologist. 

The  geologist  has  never  yet  found  the  base  of  the 
aqueous  stratified  rocks.  We  know  not  how  deeply 
these  formations  extend,  and  therefore  know  not  how 


204  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

nor  where  to  find  the  first  evidences  of  glaciation.  One 
thing,  however,  we  do  know;  when  the  laurentian 
stratified  beds  were  deposited  there  was  an  ocean  on  the 
earth.  Then  we  also  know  that  a  part  at  least  of  tel- 
lurio-cosmic  waters  had  fallen;  and  further  that  they 
fell  according  to  law  more  largely  in  those  parts  of  the 
earth  distant  from  the  equator.  Still  further,  we  know 
that  it  is  possible  they  fell  there  as  snows,  and  if  not 
prevented  by  too  great  heat  in  the  earth,  these  must 
have  formed  into  glaciers,  so  that  if  we  find  among 
these  laurentian  beds  even  scanty  evidences  of  ice  ac- 
tion, we  have  reasonable  grounds  to  predicate  the  ex- 
istence of  glaciers.  For,  as  above  stated,  time  obliter- 
ates, and  we  are  justified  in  putting  our  magnifiers  upon 
all  evidence  and  drawing  conclusions  from  the  enlarged 
image.  A  single  pebble  known  to  be  such,  a  boulder, 
even  of  small  size,  imbedded  in  rock,  must  be  admitted 
as  evidence.  There  are  small  areas  of  archaan  strata 
exposed  in  various  parts  of  the  earth,  besides  the  exten- 
sive ridge  in  British  America.  They  are  found  in  most 
of  the  great  mountain  ranges;  as  the  Appalachian,  the 
Cordilleras,  as  well  as  in  New  England,  and  in  many 
places  on  the  Eastern  continent.  In  many  of  these 
places  some  evidence  of  ice  action  exists.  In  the  laur- 
entian of  the  Blue  Ridge  I  have  seen  rounded  stones 
more  than  a  foot  in  diameter,  firmly  imbedded  in  the 
native  rock,  and  strikingly  different  from  the  concre- 
tionary forms  in  the  same  matrix.  In  some  places,  as 
in  the  archaean  of  Michigan,  as  well  as  in  the  Ozark 
Mountains,  there  is  an  evident  tendency  to  conglomer- 
ate formation.  Among  the  laurentian  quartzite  are 
boulders  of  such  dimensions  as  to  require  the  power  of 
floating  ice  to  transport  them.  In  some  of  the  later 


A  Brief  Review.  205 

archsean,  pebbles  became  an  important  factor  in  rock 
making.  These  pebbles  and  boulders  are  derived  from 
pre-existing  beds,  and  many  of  the  boulders  a  foot  or 
more  in  diameter.*  So  that  if  conglomerate  beds  are 
evidence  of  ice  action  it  is  strongly  evident  in  the  later 
archsean.  If  the  whole  field  were  exposed  to  view,  no 
doubt  we  would  see  some  of  the  grandest  monuments  of 
urging  floods  and  eroding  glaciers;  old  moraines  and 
polished  pavements.  But  if  we  are  disposed  to  doubt 
the  legitimacy  of  such  conclusions  as  this,  from  the  evi- 
dence thus  afforded,  let  us  look  a  little  further. 

We  have  already  had  abundant  evidence  that  aqueous 
additions  to  the  oceans  must  increase  the  potential  en- 
ergies sleeping  in  mechanical  pressure; — that  every 
pound  of  additional  pressure  upon  the  ocean's  bed  adds 
additional  heat  to  the  underlying  strata,  already  pressed 
to  the  point  of  fusion; — that  every  additional  pound  of 
pressure  adds  somewhat  to  the  volume  of  melted  mat- 
ter, which  additional  rock  expansion  must  force  aside. 
Hence,  though  the  ocean's  bed  may  be  hundreds  of 
miles  in  thickness,  the  expansion  of  the  lowest  beds  lat- 
erally must  produce  crushing  and  plication,  and  this 
must  form  elevation.  And  as  we  have  before  seen,  we 
cannot  conceive  of  continent-formation  by  any  other 
process.  When  more  than  30,000  feet  of  archaean  beds 
were  formed  as  sediment  from  the  first  ocean,  it  was 
that  much  of  the  mineral  and  metallic  frame;  each  foot 
of  thickness  only  adding  weakness  to  the  mighty  case- 
ment. The  lowest  beds  possessed  a  certain  degree  of 
heat  as  a  result  of  mechanical  pressure,  and  possessed 
certain  dimensions  resulting  from  that  degree  of  heat. 
The  waters  at  that  time  had  their  beds,  and  as  those 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  159. 


206  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

beds  deepened,  the  mechanical  pressure  in  such  places 
increased  on  account  of  the  gravitation  of  waters 
thither.  This  increase  of  pressure  augmented  the  heat 
of  the  lower  beds;  this  augmentation  increased  their 
dimensions  and  necessarily  produced  local  plication. 
This  occurring  in  the  deep-seated  beds  naturally  forced 
rocks  between  others,  and  this  from  necessity  produced 
elevation  upon  the  surface.  Here  the  evolution  of  con- 
tinents began.  But  this  beginning  was  not  until  late 
in  archsean  times.  This  continent-making  and  strata- 
bending  did  not  take  place  until  the  laurentian  period 
closed;  for  the  conglomerates  and  coarser  beds  which 
show  violent  agitation  and  movement  of  waters,  lie  un- 
conformably  upon  the  lower  beds.*  Now  why  is  this 
order?  Thus  we  see  the  laurentian  proper  closes  at 
the  very  time  the  conglomerates  are  formed;  and  up- 
heaval of  continents  occurred  at  the  very  time  we  would 
expect  it,  on  the  supposition  that  snows  and  deluges  of 
water  came  upon  the  earth.  Now  we  will  see  how  this 
same  order,  beginning  at  the  very  time  the  grand  struc- 
ture lines  of  the  continents  were  laid,  continues  un- 
broken throughout  succeeding  ages.  A  vast  period  of 
time  rolls  away,  and  many  thousand  feet  of  rock  are 
formed  over  this  first  glacial  deposit.  A  long  quiet 
prevailed,  and  if  no  further  downfall  of  water  or  other 
matter  had  taken  place,  there  would,  as  I  think,  have 
been  no  more  rock-folding  and  mountain-making,  ex- 
cept in  a  local  way.  I  mean  if  all  the  waters  and  their 
associated  matter  had  descended  to  the  earth  in  archaan 
or  laurentian  times,  there  could  have  been  but  one 
general  upheaval  and  plication.  We  now  pass  from  the 
quiet  waters  of  the  closing  archaean  across  the  boundary 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  159. 


A  Brief  Review.  207 

of  paleozoic  time.  We  enter  almost  immediately  upon 
a  cold  and  stormy  age;  for  its  first  epoch  is  a  time  of 
boulder  transportation  and  formation 'of  coarse  sand- 
beds.  These  are  followed  by  finer  beds,  indicating 
succeeding  quieter  waters.  The  acadian  epoch  of  Daw- 
son,  or  the  lower  cambrian  of  English  geologists,  is 
still  more  plainly  the  time  of  glacial  action  than  the 
archsean.  Bordering  on  the  archasan,  in  Clinton  and 
St.  Lawrence  counties,  also  in  Franklin  Co.,  N.  Y.,  the 
conglomerates  occur  in  heavy  masses.  In  some  places 
beds  more  than  200  feet  thick  are  found.  In  East 
Tennessee  and  North  Carolina  occur  the  Oconee  con- 
glomerate beds  extending  over  a  wide  horizon.  And 
according  to  Dr.  Hayden,  conglomerate  beds  lying  on 
the  archsean  are  found  in  the  Black  Hills  of  Dakota. 
In  Northwest  Scotland,  in  Lapland,  Norway  and  Swe- 
den, conglomerate  beds  are  placed  low  down  in  the 
cambrian  (lower  silurian),  where  they  lie  unconform- 
ably  upon  the  older  rocks.  Geikie,  looking  at  these 
facts,  is  inclined  to  assign  some  of  these  conglomerates 
to  a  glacial  origin.*  And  when  we  see  in  some  places, 
as  in  the  eastern  part  of  North  America,  there  was  a 
general  extermination  of  primordial  forms  of  life,  at 
the  very  time  these  beds  were  formed,f  the  evidence 
of  refrigeration  and  glaciation  becomes  very  apparent. 
For  it  is  well-known  that  species  that  lived  in  the 
acadian  or  lower  cambrian  are  not  found  in  the  upper 
beds,  and  in  the  former  some  crustaceans  of  enormous 
size  became  extinct  forever;  while  no  trilobites,  so  far 
as  known,  so  common  in  the  lower  beds,  are  found  in 
the  next  period.  This  appears  to  be  the  case  not  only 

*"  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  478. 
fDana,  page  181. 


208  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

in  this  country,  but  also  in  the  lingula  flags  of  the  Eng- 
lish division,  showing  that  both  hemispheres  were 
likely  subjected  to  similar  changes  from  the  same  causes. 
There  was,  as  the  evidence  seems  to  show,  a  far-reaching 
cause  of  extermination;  and  as  this  destruction  of  spe- 
cies took  place  at  the  time  the  great  conglomerate  beds 
of  the  lower  silurian  were  formed,  the  evidence  is  cer- 
tainly strong  that  paleozoic  time  began  with  the  close 
of  a  glacial  period.  But  we  have  seen  that  a  glacial 
period  necessitates  a  sudden  accumulation  of  snows,  fol- 
lowed by  rushing  floods;  and  as  one  glance  at  the  con- 
glomerate and  boulder  beds  and  their  associates  will 
convince  the  most  incredulous  that  they  show  violent 
agitation  and  rapid  deposition  as  well  as  catastrophic 
change,  we  are  still  further  confirmed  in  the  belief  of 
annular  downfalls.  Compared  with  the  succeeding 
beds  of  the  Canadian  and  Trenton  periods,  no  one  can 
doubt  a  radical  and  general  change  of  conditions;  the 
latter  periods  indicating  a  long  time  of  calm  and  quiet 
seas,  and  a  warm  climate  over  a  great  part  of  the  earth ; 
and  the  former  pointing  to  conditions  antagonistic  to 
life,  and  evidently  a  step  backward,  preparatory  for  a 
grand  leap  in  the  line  of  progress. 

But  here  again  we  are  met  with  a  decisive  test.  If 
these  coarse  formations  were  glacial  deposits,  or  the  re- 
sult of  urging  floods  from  on  high,  then  the  oceans  were 
augmented  at  the  time  they  were  formed,  and  upheaval 
and  crumpling  of  strata  must  have  immediately  fol- 
lowed this  increase  of  pressure  upon  the  ocean's  floor. 
It  is  with  but  little  astonishment,  then,  but  yet  with 
a  deep  satisfaction,  that  an  investigation  of  these  hoary 
rock-volumes  reveals  the  very  test  at  the  very  time  we 
need  it.  Geologists  the  world  over  know  that  such 


A  Brief  Review.  209 

continent-making  and  crust-disturbance  occurred  then 
and  there.  The  conglomerates  and  their  related  beds 
lie  unconformably  upon  the  lower  beds,  and  in  turn 
have  similar  relations  to  the  overlying  strata.  The 
snows  evidently  came  some  time  between  the  archsean 
and  mid-silurian.  The  waters  rolled  away  to  the  seas; 
the  crumpling  came,  and  the  lingering  glacier  and  the 
tottering  iceberg,  working  as  they  do  to-day,  during  un- 
known time,  formed  rock  accumulations  upon  the  up- 
turned beds.  Thus  it  seems  that  the  archaean  was 
closed  by  glaciation  and  flood,  and  that  the  resulting 
disturbances  reached  far  into  the  cambrian,  and  that  the 
paleozoic  strata  were  planted  upon  the  glacial  ruins  of  a 
former  world. 

Now  kaving  closed  a  rough  and  stormy  age  resulting 
from  aqueous  and  snowy  downfalls,  as  the  very  nature 
of  annular  formation  requires  a  period  of  quietude  and 
rest,  while  the  next  ring  is  preparing  during  countless 
ages  perhaps  for  its  final  fall,  as  it  overcanopies  the 
earth,  it  is  plain  that  we  must  find  the  next  phase  of 
the  silurian  age  to  agree  with  this  demand.  We  must 
expect  a  warm  age,  favorable  to  organic  evolution;  and 
as  these  are  the  very  conditions,  as  announced  above,  in 
the  Canadian  and  Trenton  periods  that  followed  this 
great  disturbance,  we  can  only  add  one  more  link  to 
the  great  chain  of  evidence.  Immediately  following 
this  great  plication  during  the  lower  silurian  there 
came  a  long  period  of  comparative  quiet.  During  this 
long  age  it  is  likely  that  icebergs  from  the  polar  world 
continued  to  transport  foreign  materials  and  drop  them 
over  the  sea-bottom  as  at  this  day. 

After  many  thousand  feet  of  calcareous  and  silicio- 
ealcareous  matter  were  deposited,  there  came  a  time 


210  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

which  we  may  call  mid-silurian,  when  many  species  in 
the  midst  of  life's  full  tide  passed  away.  Vast  num- 
bers of  lower  silurian  species  never  passed  this  gap  in 
silurian  time  into  the  upper  beds.  This  fact  is  well 
known.  In  peering  into  this  remarkable  hiatus,  ap- 
parently in  the  very  noon-tide  of  primordial  life,  well 
might  the  illustrious  Dana  exclaim :  "  This  wide  exter- 
mination shows  change  and  catastrophe."*  As  all 
organisms  of  that  age  known  to  the  geologists  were 
oceanic  forms,  this  catastrophic  change  proves  a  radical 
and  abrupt  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  terrestrial 
waters,  which  in  the  very  start  drives  us  to  concede 
the  fall  of  additional  waters  from  on  high.  But  this 
conclusion  necessitates  the  augmentation  of  polar  snows 
and  a  wide  expanse  of  continental  glaciers.  If,  there- 
fore, we  find  the  glacier's  track  and  the  dead  forms  of 
exterminated  life  side  by  side,  the  argument  would 
seem  to  be  complete,  and  we  would  look  to  annular 
downfalls  as  the  cause  of  both. 

Now  the  existence  of  boulders  and  conglomerated 
pebbles,  the  inevitable  products  of  glaciation  in  the 
medio-silurian,  is  known  to  all.  On  the  American  con- 
tinent the  first  step  we  take  in  upper  silurian  lands  is 
among  the  Oneida  conglomerated,  a  formation  in  many 
places  literally  filled  with  pebbles  and  water-worn 
boulders  dragged  from  older  beds.  The  Oneida  con 
glomerate  extends  from  Central  New  York,  almost 
through  the  entire  length  of  the  Appalachian  range. 
European  geologists  repeatedly  refer  to  these  boulders 
and  conglomerates  in  the  upper  silurian.  Dr.  Dawson, 
of  Canada,  viewing  the  angular  fragmental  blocks  in 
the  Nova  Scotia  beds  of  this  age, says:  "These  materials 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  212. 


A  Brief  Review.  211 

seem  precisely  similar  to  those  which  are  at  present 
produced  by  the  disintegrating  action  of  frost,"  etc. 
The  heavy  blocks  and  angular  boulders  in  the  Scottish 
highlands  are  claimed  by  some  authors  to  belong  to 
the  inter-silurian  age  of  ice.  But  this  argument  be- 
comes most  complete  when  we  find  that  these  features 
of  inseparable  extermination  and  ice  action  culminated 
in  the  tilting  of  strata  and  mountain  upheaval,  proving 
that  an  energy  was  added  to  the  ocean's  pressure.  At 
that  time  the  great  Cincinnati  anticlinal  was  formed. 
The  Green  Mountains  were  lifted  on  high,  with  their 
beds  of  the  lower  silurian  upon  them;  and  other  parts 
of  New  England  were  then  raised  from  the  ocean.  In 
Europe,  also,  were  extensive  upheavals,  and  coincident 
exterminations,  so  that  I  presume  all  geologists  will  ad- 
mit that  that  age  (medio-silurian)  was  one  of  extensive 
upheaval.  Thus  a  remarkable  triplieity  of  events  is 
known,  and  each  member  of  the  union  points  to  annu- 
lar declension. 

Again  the  glacier  and  the  iceberg  melt  away,  and  a 
long  period  of  comparative  quiet,  during  which  stupen- 
dous formations  of  calcareous  rock  were  deposited,  in- 
tervenes. The  old  silurian  ocean  grew  warm,  and  new 
life-forms  filled  its  waters.*  Why  did  it  grow  warm? 
Why  did  many  of  its  inhabitants  perish  as  by  a  stroke, 
and  new  tribes  take  their  places?  Here  is  where  the 
heavy  dolomitic  or  magnesian  limestone  beds  were 
formed.  If  their  constituents  were  in  the  waters  that 

*  It  must  be  evident  to  the  philosophic  mind  that  new  life-forms 
could  not  and  would  not  take  possession  of  our  oceans,  unless 
their  waters  were  radically  changed  by  a  vast  addition.  Now 
while  at  the  same  time  such  additions  would  exterminate  old 
forms  as  well  as  demand  new  ones,  and  said  additions  also  cause 
upheaval  and  glaciation,  it  is  plain  that  the  annular  system  must 
come  in  as  the  great  cause  of  all  these  changes. 


212  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

fell  in  more  primitive  times,  why  were  they  not  de- 
posited long  before  this  ?  If  they  were  deposited  long 
before,  why  did  the  waters  take  them  up  again  and  de- 
posit them  anew  ?  And  how  did  the  waters  work 
through  the  great  mass  of  Canadian  and  Trenton  lime- 
stones, refusing  to  appropriate  their  constituents  in  or- 
der to  get  at  those  more  deeply  buried  beneath  them? 
Now,  as  we  are  forced  by  other  circumstances,  it  seems 
to  me,  to  admit  this  oceanic  augmentation,  and  are 
here  again  compelled  to  face  some  of  the  most  unphilo- 
sophic  and  impossible  propositions,  if  such  a  conclusion 
is  not  conceded,  our  claim  that  a  new  ocean  had  de- 
scended upon  the  earth,  and  from  its  waters  the  vast 
beds  of  dolomites  were  deposited,  as  so  much  of  the 
great  fund  of  telluric-cosmic  dust  native  in  the  annular 
system,  is  one  that  under  any  circumstances,  it  must  be 
conceded,  should  be  respected.  When  we  admit  an- 
other downfall  in  the  medio-silurian,  we  can  see  the 
new  environment  that  necessitates  new  life-forms,  on 
the  ashes  of  the  old;  we  can  see  why  the  deposit  was 
magnesian  lime  and  not  a  carbonate;  why  there  were 
signs  of  rushing  floods  and  refrigeration;  why  there 
was  curving  of  strata.  Uncounted  millenniums  moved 
down  the  tide  of  time  as  this  great  limestone  formation 
progressed;  and  as  the  waters  became  relieved  of  their 
burden  other  organisms  came  into  existence.  In  some 
parts  of  the  earth,  the  oceanic  waters  approached  that 
condition  adapted  to  the  proto-typical  forms  of  the  ver- 
tebrate races;  for  even  before  we  pass  the  boundaries 
of  silurian  time  some  of  the  ancestors  of  devonian  life 
appear  as  timid  pioneers  upon  the  scene,  while  at  the 
same  time  some  coral  and  crinoidal  forms  become  ex- 
tinct. These  changes — the  sudden  dying  out  of  specific 


A  Brief  Review.  213 

and  even  generic  forms,  and  the  sudden  advent  of  new 
ones,  without  any  intermediary  link  of  relationship  to 
existing  forms — points  to  the  annular  system  as  the 
seed-bed  of  organisms.  Of  this  more  hereafter. 

As  geologists  have  long  recognized  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  definite  boundary  line  between  the  silurian 
and  the  next  succeeding  age,  or  devonian;  and  as  I 
have  before  intimated  that  each  geologic  age  was  closed 
by  a  fall  of  annular  matter,  this  boundary  will  be  our 
field  of  observation.  In  many  places  the  passage  from 
the  silurian  into  the  devonian  is  quite  abrupt.  Through- 
out the  Appalachian  field  the  transition  is  marked  by 
the  presence  of  vast  beds  of  mechanical  sediment,  in- 
dicative of  great  agitation  of  waters,  and  known  gener- 
ally in  America  as  Oriskany  sandstone.  This  forma- 
tion is  an  extensive,  one,  and  in  many  places  is  so  coarse 
as  to  be  a  veritable  conglomerate,  indicative  of  ice  ac- 
tion. In  the  Old  World  there  does  not  appear  such 
positive  evidence  of  ice  movements;  but  in  its  place  is 
other  evidence  of  either  a  cold  age,  or  a  new  supply  of 
ocean  waters.  The  deposits  of  the  two  continents  are 
marked  by  a  scarcity  in  many  places  of  organic  remains. 
In  my  own  State  where  the  Oriskany  is  widely  lain, 
they  are  almost  entirely  absent.  Now  as  the  beds  im- 
mediately below  this  formation  indicate  by  their  fos- 
sils warm  and  quiet  waters,  it  becomes  more  positively 
indicative  of  climatic  refrigeration.  In  the  lower  beds 
more  than  300  species  have  been  found  and  known,  and. 
what  is  more  important  and  striking,  they  are  in  great 
part  characteristically  distinct  from  those  above.  That 
a  wide  reach  of  calcareous  fossiliferous  rock  should  be 
overlain  by  an  equally  extensive  and  sparsely  fossilifer- 


214  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ous  sand  and  conglomerate  formatio*n  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted shows  catastrophic  change, — flood  and  disaster. 

Sometimes  the  shells  of  the  lower  beds  are  packed  in 
great  numbers  in  the  upper,  and  this  has  caused  some 
geologists  to  place  the  Oriskany  in  the  silurian  division. 
But  its  forming  simply  a  passage-bed  between  this  and 
the  devonian,  and  laid  down  by  ice  and  flood,  will  read- 
ily account  for  all  these  things.  Thus  as  we  move  up- 
ward we  see  the  same  expected  evidence  of  sudden  and 
exterminating  changes.  If  we  consider  the  Ludlow 
beds  of  Europe  as  the  representatives  of  this  passage- 
bed — the  Oriskany  and  Helderberg — and  protected 
somewhat  from  the  full  effects  of  refrigeration,  the 
gradation  upwards  is  so  far  complete.  And  when  we 
find  the  former  in  no  small  degree  placed  uncomfonn- 
ably  upon  the  upper  silurian,  and  the  same  unconform- 
ability  on  the  Western  Continent,  we  simply  find  the 
same  adequate  cause  of  crust-breaking  and  mountain- 
making  at  work.  We  find  in  both  continents  the  full 
effects  of  stupendous  additions  of  oceanic  waters,  and 
extensive  continental  uplifts  immediately  resulting.  In 
many  places,  and  notably  upon  the  eastern  border  of 
this  continent,  the  strata  were  upturned  immediately 
after  the  first  devonian  beds  were  laid  down.  This 
places  the  operating  cause  of  mountain-making  in  com- 
pany with  the  extermination  of  species,  the  urging  of 
floods  and  climatic  changes,  as  in  all  other  cases,  and 
directs  us  to  the  annular  waters. 

There  were  many  minor  changes  of  this  character 
in  the  long  ages  of  the  devonian,  but  we  will  pass  over 
them  all  to  the  border-land  of  the  so-called  carbonifer- 
ous, where  we  find  abundant  evidence  of  ice  action  in 
the  passage  beds  of  the  two  ages;  not  alone  in  the 


A  Brief  Review.  215 

numerous  beds  of  massive  conglomerates,  but  in  their 
wide  spread  over  the  continents.  Dr.  Dawson  has  said, 
in  speaking  of  Nova  Scotia :  "  In  passing  downward 
from  the  carboniferous,  we  constantly  meet  with  un- 
conformability."  And  Dana :  "An  epoch  of  disturbance 
of  the  eastern  border  region  intervened  between  the 
devonian  and  carboniferous."*  Great  beds  of  con- 
glomerate at  the  base  of  the  carboniferous  are  formed 
into  actual  glacial  moraines  in  different  parts  of  Scot- 
land.f  Beds  of  sub-carboniferous  moraines  are  authen- 
tically reported  from  Australia.  I  believe  it  is  gener- 
ally conceded  that  these  are  the  work  of  ice,  and  geolo- 
gists stand  perplexed  and  amazed  over  the  numerous 
morainic  beds  among  the  coal-bearing  strata  of  Amer- 
ica. Without  a  competent  source  of  snows  we  might 
well  feel  perplexed  in  our  efforts  to  explain  the  source 
of  a  glacier,  reaching  from  the  north  polar  world,  be- 
fore the  birth  of  the  Himalayas,  to  the  Australian  con- 
tinent. If  there  be  any  reliance  in  the  autobiography 
of  transported  materials,  which  make  up  these  ancient 
moraines,  that  space  of  time  between  the  formation  of 
the  upper  devonian  beds  and  those  of  the  lower  carboni- 
ferous must  have  been  one  in  which  the  earth  was 
severely  under  the  dominion  of  the  Ice  King.  Any  one 
whose  eyes  are  accustomed  to  fall  daily  upon  the  mor- 
ainic  matter  of  the  great  North  American  ice-sheet  of 
modern  geologic  times,  will  not  fail  to  put  the  consoli- 
dated boulder-drift  found  below  and  among  the  lower 
coal  measures  in  the  same  class. 

There  are  some  facts  connected  with  the  carbonifer- 
ous quite  remarkable.     One  of  these  is  the  repeated  oc- 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  289. 

t  Geikie's  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  479. 


216  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

currence  of  conglomerated  beds  intercalated  between 
seams  of  coal.*  There  are  at  least  four  coal  seams 
opened  in  Pennsylvania  around  Shamokin,  between 
five  beds  of  conglomerate,  in  a  vertical  space  of  250 
feet;  and  in  the  body  of  the  conglomerate  itself  at 
Pottsville  important  coal  beds  have  been  opened.  But 
these  are  not  rare  occurrences.  They  occur  in  other 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Also  in  Nova  Scotia  (Daw- 
son),  as  well  as  on  the  continent  of  Europe  (Godwin- 
Austen).  So  that  it  must  be  admitted  that  conglom- 
erates and  coal  are  natural,  not  accidental  associates. 
(Let  the  reader  remember  this  very  important  fact.) 

Now,  reasonable  men  will  concede  the  fact  that  these 
conglomerates  necessitate  the  movement  of  glaciers 
and  icebergs.  But  what  a  marvelous  puzzle!  Float- 
ing icebergs  and  continental  glaciers  in  a  hot-house 
world!  glacial  epochs  repeated  again  and  again  in  the 
very  land  where  and  at  the  very  time  a  luxuriant  vege- 
tation was  forming  vast  beds  of  coal ! !  and  these  all  ac- 
companied by  rushing,  impelling  and  devouring  floods. 
"  Geologists  are  staggered  by  these  appearances,"  so 
says  Geikie.  And  they  must  and  will  be  sorely  puzzled 
until  they  admit  the  philosophy  of  sudden  downfalls  of 
snow  and  other  annular  matter  that  brought  each  age 
to  a  close,  and  frequently  characterized  the  age  through- 
out to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  But  be  that  as  men 
choose  to  make  it;  here  in  the  very  field,  bearing  un- 
impeachable testimony  to  a  warm  climate,  are  multi- 
tudes of  witnesses  establishing  beyond  a  doubt  the  fact 
of  glaciation.  We  must  reconcile  these  things  by  tlie 
administration  of  Law. 

One  glance  at  this  complex  system  of  carboniferous 

*  Report  of  Progress,  Penna.  Geol.  Sur.,  page  628. 


A  Brief  Review.  217 

strata  forces,  it  seems  to  me,  two  very  important  con- 
clusions. The  intimate,  and  as  is  often  the  case,  the 
immediate  contact  of  the  remains  of  a  luxuriant  vege- 
tation, with  massive  conglomerate  beds, — the  well- 
known  products  of  excessive  glaciation, — proves  that 
the  snows  of  that  olden  age  came  suddenly  and  repeat- 
edly upon  a  world  of  life.  From  this  again  comes  the 
necessary  conclusion  that  the  oceanic  waters  were  great- 
ly increased  in  volume,  and  we  must  therefore  expect 
as  a  legitimate  and  necessary  consequence  a  system  of 
upheavals  and  strata-folding  correspondingly  stupend- 
ous and  grand.  Must  I  point  my  brother  geologists  to 
the  well-known  facts  that  support  this  latter  conclusion  ? 
Need  I  tell  them  that  the  continents  grown  more  stable 
with  time  would  resist  oceanic  pressure  longer,  but 
when  they  began  to  move  would  move  with  grander 
strides  ?  Need  I  point  to  the  great  convolutions  of  the 
earth's  crust,  known  to  have  been  formed  immediately 
after  the  carboniferous  beds  were  laid  down?  The 
geologists  "  know  these  things  by  heart."  But  to  the 
general  reader  I  must  devote  a  little  time. 

It  is  manifest,  even  to  a  common  observer,  that  the 
strata  of  the  so-called  carboniferous  age  were  bent, 
crushed  and  folded  into  thousands  of  corrugations  after 
the  coal  and  conglomerate  beds  were  formed,  and  be- 
fore the  penman  wave  rolled  by.  In  the  Appalachian 
coal  field  this  is  eminently  the  case.  In  this  region  the 
rocks  to  the  inmost  depths  took  part  in  the  general  pli- 
cation. The  stolid  piles  of  laurentian,  the  universal 
casement  of  the  world's  silurian,  confined  under  the 
heavy  beds  of  the  devonian,  and  the  devonian  beds 
themselves,  all  moved  in  response  to  the  potential 
energy  accumulated  as  the  waters  increased,  and  other 


218  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

matter  from  the  annular  system  gathered  upon  the 
ocean's  floor.  It  was  emphatically  a  mountain-forming 
era.  Some  of  the  greatest  mountain  ranges  were  then 
lifted  from  their  ocean  beds.  Speaking  of  this  age, 
Dana,  whose  authority  few  will  venture  to  question, 
says  :*  "  There  were  no  Alleghanies,  for  this  region 
was  a  part  of  the  coal-making  plain;  there  were  no 
Rocky  Mountains,  for  these,  as  the  carboniferous  lime- 
stones prove,  were  mainly  under  the  sea."  Again  he 
says  :f  "  The  coal  period  was  a  time  of  unceasing 
change; — eras  of  universal  verdure,  alternating  with 
others  of  widespread  waters,  destructive  of  all  vegeta- 
tion, and  other  terrestrial  life  except  that  which  cov- 
ered regions  beyond  the  coal  measure  limits." 

Now  when  we  reflect  that  such  extensive  extermina- 
tions, such  great  mountain  upheavals,  such  great  beds 
of  conglomerates  were  produced  while  yet  the  fund  of 
annular  matter  was  unexhausted,  where  else  can  we  look 
for  the  true  cause  of  these  changes?  Why  were  such 
wide  reaches  of  coal  beds  formed  in  the  lap  of  the  gla- 
ciated world?  Well  might  geologists  stand  perplexed 
and  amazed  over  such  inconsistencies.  In  England  and 
Scotland  the  same  mountain  forming  went  on,  at  or 
near  the  same  time.  We  cannot  close  our  eyes  to  this 
wondrous  co-relation  of  phenomena.  The  light  cast 
upon  these  questions  in  recent  times  is  penetrating  and 
dissolving  the  mists,  and  thoughtful  men  are  now  be- 
ginning to  read  the  ipse  dixit  of  the  living  rock;  and 
will  not  cling  much  longer  to  the  unnatural  and  un- 
philosophic  theory  of  geological  growth  as  now  main- 
tained. We  have  seen  the  grand  and  stupendous  up- 

•"Manual,"  page  355. 
t  "  Manual,"  page  359. 


A  Brief  Review.  219 

heaval  of  continents,  and  the  rearing  of  mountains  that 
closed  the  so-called  carboniferous  age,  and  yet  the  car- 
bonaceous deposits  never  ceased  to  form, — never  ceased 
to  fall  as  carbon  dust, — till  the  last  remnant  of  upper 
waters  had  descended  to  the  earth  after  man  was  placed 
thereon. 

Let  us  now  take  a  glance  at  the  permian,  evidently 
a  transition  period  of  the  carboniferous, — a  time  when 
the  old  life-forms  began  to  decline  and  "  run  out,"  and 
a  new  environment  demanded  new  ones,  and  in  response 
to  which  a  new  page  in  geological  history  was  written. 
But  the  permian,  in  order  to  be  a  time  of  such  transi- 
tion, must  have  been  a  time  of  great  physical  changes, 
whereby  new  environments  were  made;  and  conglom- 
erate beds  found  in  strata  belonging  to  this  period 
plainly  tell  us  that  such  changes  did  take  place.  We 
find  in  different  lands  these  conglomerates  made  up 
largely  of  exotic  stones,  some  of  large  size,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  if  we  could  see  the  broad  fields  of  the  per- 
mian we  would  see  a  glacial  period  well  defined.  As  it 
is,  however,  the  rocks  of  this  age  are  not  so  largely  ex- 
posed as  those  of  former  ages,  at  least  in  North  Amer- 
ica. But  in  addition  to  conglomerate  beds  the  permian 
has  also  large  deposits  of  coal.  Those  who  have  ex- 
amined stones  of  the  former  beds  in  fact,  and  who  have 
expressed  a  sentiment  as  to  their  origin,  I  believe  gen- 
erally favor  the  view  that  they  were  carried  to  their 
resting  ground  by  ice.  Both  Geikie  and  Ramsay  are 
of  this  opinion.  Geikie  says :  "  Ramsay  has  given  a  de- 
tailed account  of  the  occurrence  in  permian  conglom- 
erate of  blunted  and  well-scratched  stones,  which  seems 
conclusively  to  prove  the  existence  of  glaciers  and  ice- 


220  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

bergs."     The  same  authority  claims  that  the  permian 
conglomerate  of  Germany  shows  a  like  origin. 

These  things  being  well-established  facts  we  can  no 
longer  doubt  that  the  permian  witnessed  one  or  more 
glacial  periods.  Then  if  our  theory  be  true  that  such 
periods  were  brought  about  by  measureless  reaches  and 
down-rushes  of  snow,  the  oceans  must  have  again  in- 
creased in  volume  and  depth,  and  we  must  find  evi- 
dences of  this  in  the  flexures  and  curves  of  strata,  in 
connection  with  the  glacial  beds.  As  according  to 
these  indications  in  the  carboniferous  era  and  all  previ- 
ious  ages  the  upheaval  came,  we  will  look  as  confidently 
for  permian  upheaval  as  we  would  expect  thunder  to 
follow  the  "lightning's  fiery  wing."  "Murchison,"  says 
Dana,  "  remarks  that  the  close  of  the  carboniferous  (in- 
cluding the  permian,  of  course)  was  especially  marked 
by  disturbances  and  upliftings"  (Italics  mine.) 
Again,  Dana  remarks  that  all  the  country  between  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Mississippi  arose  from  the  ocean  in 
the  permian  period.*  Again,  "At  the  close  of  the  per- 
mian there  were  great  dislocations."  And,  again,  the 
same  authority  says :  "  It  is  manifest  that  the  period 
between  the  close  of  the  carboniferous  and  the  triassic 
was  one  of  enormous  disturbance."  De  Beaumont's 
"  System  of  the  Netherlands  "  includes  the  dislocations 
of  the  permian  beds  along  the  base  of  the  Hartz  Moun- 
tains; also  those  in  Nassau  and  Saxony,  which  preceded 
the  triassic  beds,  as  well  as  many  cotemporaneous  dis- 
turbances in  the  permian  of  Wales  and  France.  In  the 
Ural  Mountains  permian  flexures  also  occur;  and  it 
seems  likely  that  the  ruptures  noticed  in  Australian 
permian  occurred  at  the  same  time.  These  oscillations 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  368. 


A  Brief  Review.  221 

"  show  cotemporaneous  movements  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean."* 

Here  let  me  call  the  reader's  attention  to  these  co- 
temporaneous displacements  in  both  and  perhaps  all 
continents.  How  did  it  happen  that  over  much  of  the 
American  continent,  and  over  lands  separated  from  it 
by  the  expanse  of  oceans,  elevations  should  occur,  just 
at  the  time  the  snows  and  floods  of  the  permian  reached 
the  oceans?  Why  a  feature  in  such  remarkable  har- 
mony with  annular  declension  ?  But  suppose  those  ex- 
terminations which  our  theory  demands  should  here 
fail  to  support  us.  It  would  be  a  disastrous  failure  of 
the  annular  theory.  Such  witnesses  will  not  forsake 
us.  They  crowd  around  us  in  greater  profusion  as  we 
move  down  the  great  tide  of  geologic  changes.  The 
carboniferous  cataclysms  reveal  the  dead  forms  in 
abundance;  they  lie  thickly  strewn  over  the  permian 
world,  and  new  species  spring,  as  it  were,  from  their 
dust.  Forms  weakened  and  depauperated  in  the  car- 
boniferous age  cease  to  exist  before  the  close  of  the  per- 
mian. Coral  animals  that  formed  oceanic  reefs  in  olden 
time  far  more  extensive  than  those  in  modern  waters, 
so  nearly  perished  that  but  a  few  straggling  members 
of  the  great  family  Cyathophillus  appeared  afterwards; 
and  some  of  the  ganoidal  fishes  at  the  close  of  the  per- 
mian had  passed  away.  On  the  other  hand,  crocodilian 
forms  came  upon  the  scene,  and  finally  almost  possessed 
the  earth. f  The  great  family  of  Trilobites  became  ex- 
tinct, as  well  as  many  mollusks.  Many  vegetable  forms 
also  died  out.  It  was  the  last  of  the  Sigillaria  and 
Lepidodendra.  Now  it  must  be  admitted  that  while 

•Ibid.,  page  394. 
tlbid.,  page  371. 


222  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

this  extermination  of  old  forms  was  in  many  instances 
a  gradual  process,  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
"  at  the  close  of  long  periods  and  epochs  there  were 
more  general  exterminations,"* — catastrophic  changes 
that  abruptly  closed  the  life-period  of  many  organisms. 
So  far  then  as  our  investigations  have  been  carried  we 
find  a  most  remarkable  connection  and  co-relation  of 
phenomena.  We  find  there  has  been  a  regular  routine 
of  changes  individually  dependent  upon  the  grand 
cause  we  have  herein  set  forth.  We  have  seen  a  fall 
of  annular  matter  in  the  historic  period,  and  we  there- 
fore know  that  the  same  kind  of  changes  took  place 
many  times  in  the  geologic  ages,  and  when  we  examine 
these  changes  more  minutely  we  see  how  harmoniously 
the  indications  point  to  the  great  conclusions  here 
drawn.  Not  a  link  is  missing  in  the  great  chain,  and 
we  must  now  see  that  our  conclusions  are  in  the  main 
correct. 

I  might  follow  the  geologic  record  exhaustively 
through  these  changes,  from  the  close  of  the  permian, 
through  the  triassic,  Jurassic,  cretaceous,  etc.,  and 
show  that  in  each  period  there  are  unmistakable  signs 
of  recurring  glacial  epochs,  by  which  wide  and  sweep- 
ing exterminations  of  species  were  effected.  In  each 
epoch  is  the  evidence  of  boulders  and  conglomerates. 
Each  epoch  is  brought  to  a  close  by  crust  disturbance, 
and  each  disturbance  preceded  by  flood  and  violence; 
and  we  need  no  longer  be  puzzled  by  the  fact  that  at 
each  period  the  continents  took  a  "  plunge  bath  in  the 
seas  "  before  they  were  lifted  to  greater  height.  They 
were  simply  lifted  higher  by  the  waters  as  they  sought 
their  level.  If  this  be  not  the  true  explanation  of  this 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  384. 


A  Brief  Review.  223 

puzzling  enigma,  where  shall  we  look  for  another  ?  To 
suppose  that  each  time  the  continents  are  raised  a  few 
feet  from  the  ocean  they  must  first  take  this  baptismal 
plunge  is  too  ridiculous  and  unphilosophic  for  this  en- 
lightened age.  And  yet  we  read  it  as  the  deliberate 
conclusion  of  eminent  men.  The  continents  were  in- 
deed baptized  and  lifted  from  the  deep,  but  under  the 
eternal  fixity — law.  This  digression  will  prepare  us 
for  an  examination  of  the  more  recent  periods.  These 
things  are  to-day  within  the  purview  of  all  investiga- 
tors. I  have  looked  over  the  more  obscure  and  diffi- 
cult periods  and  ages,  and  shown  their  necessary  de- 
pendence upon  annular  falls,  and  I  will  now  leave  the 
more  apparent  path  for  other  men,  and  will  draw  my 
conclusion  here  by  a  rapid  run  over  the  remaining  field. 
Some  of  the  more  recent  periods  were  characterized  by 
the  most  stupendous  revulsions  and  upheaval.  The 
Alps,  the  Andes  and  the  Himalayas  were  lifted  in  these 
modern  times.  At  the  close  of  the  Jurassic  period  oc- 
cured  one  of  the  grandest  series  of  mountain-makings 
the  world  ever  saw.  Not  only  at  that  time  were  the 
Rocky  Mountains  lifted  higher,  but  the  great  Nevada 
range,  the  Humboldt  and  TJintah  Mountains,  were 
heaved  from  the  bosom  of  the  Pacific,  and  all  the  con- 
tinents were  to  some  extent  moved  to  their  very  cen- 
ters. At  the  close  of  the  cretaceous  period  they  were 
again  moved  to  their  profoundest  depths,  and  again  we 
see  the  track  of  the  glacier  and  the  stroke  of  death.  Be- 
ginning in  the  pennian  period  the  reptilian  forms  finally 
had  unbounded  sway  upon  the  earth  at  the  beginning  of 
the  cretaceous;  but  this  period  passed  away  with  the 
almost  complete  destruction  of  mesozoic  forms.  Those 
monstrous  members  of  the  reptilian  family,  as  the  pie- 


224  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

siosaurus  and  ichthyosaurus,  fell  victims  of  that  univer- 
sal catastrophe.  The  Old  World  was  passing  by  with 
sudden  and  giant  strides.  Again  and  again  the  man- 
tle of  bloom  and  life  overspreads  the  earth,  and  again 
and  again  it  falls  as  the  winding  sheet  of  the  giant  dead. 
As  reptilian  forms  gave  way  the  ancestral  forms  of  the 
mammal  family  (horse,  elephant,  ox,  etc.)  began  their 
long  and  universal  control  of  the  earth.  But  through 
ice  and  flood  they  finally  passed  away.  As  I  look  over 
the  ancient  forage  ground  of  the  tertiary  mammals, 
and  see  also  the  great  telluric  graveyards,  where  in  im- 
mense numbers  they  have  been  gathered,  doubtless  by 
driving  and  sweeping  floods,  I  am  so  vividly  impressed 
with  the  suddenness  and  completeness  of  these  visita- 
tions that  it  seems  to  me  we  need  nothing  more  than  a 
simple  prospect  of  the  battle-grounds  and  battle-scenes 
of  the  tertiaries  to  convince  us  that  the  claims  I  have 
here  made  are  essentially  true,  even  if  no  other  evidence 
could  be  found.  If  some  appalling  flood  should  in  this 
day  sweep  every  animal  from  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
and  bury  it  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  latter  could  be- 
come no  more  really  the  home  of  the  dead  forms  of  this 
age  than  the  great  West  and  Northwest  is  to-day  the 
burial  ground  of  eocene,  miocene  and  pliocene  forms 
packed  in  countless  numbers. 

Now  a  short  rehearsal  may  be  in  place.  In  the  fore- 
going chapter  I  have  labored  to  show  that  the  glaciers 
of  the  quaternary  were  caused  by  a  sudden  down-rush 
of  annular  snows;  and  that  from  the  condition  in  which 
the  imbedded  animals  are  found  no  other  reasonable 
cause  or  source  can  be  found.  I  then  point  out  the 
philosophic  and  necessary  consequence  of  such  an  ava- 
lanche from  on  high,  such  as  specific  extermination,  wide 


A  Brief  Review.  225 

flood  deposits  and  rock  displacement.  We  then  find 
the  same  signs  of  glaciation  in  all  the  geologic  ages, 
save,  perhaps,  the  true  archaan,  and  find  also  that 
such  glacial  evidence  is  accompanied  by  the  same  inevi- 
table results  of  continental  disturbance,  mountain  up- 
thrusts,  flood-baptisms  and  exterminations,  and  that  at 
each  of  these  visitations  a  new  ocean  is  formed,  as 
shown  by  new  life  forms.  These  natural  associates  we 
find  continually  in  company,  running  through  the  en- 
tire series  of  ages,  a  four-fold  cord  of  evidence  that  no 
argument  can  break — witnesses  that  no  force  can  sever 
— while  the  general  exterminations  found  attending 
them  force  the  conviction  upon  us  that  our  conclusions 
are  correct.  Now  in  the  first  place  we  cannot  account 
for  these  universal  exterminations  of  life-forms,  whereby 
whole  races  of  animals  inhabiting  different  continents 
vanish,  as  it  were,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  except 
through  catastrophic  flood,  or  universal  snows.  In  the 
second  place,  we  cannot  account  for  morainic  and  other 
drift  diffusion  except  by  rushing  waters  and  moving  ice ; 
and,  thirdly,  we  cannot  satisfactorily  account  for  the 
grand  and  universal  uplifting  of  strata  from  the  oceans 
as  radiating  centers  of  force,  except  through  augmenta- 
tion of  volume  and  weight,  by  water  and  other  exotic 
matter.  We  know  that  the  forces  that  have  upheaved 
the  continents  have  always  acted  from  the  oceans,  and 
that  they  have  acted  again  and  again,  and  we  know  that 
the  oceans  cannot  of  themselves  give  or  use  this  force 
again,  after  it  is  once  applied,  except  through  force 
stored  up  as  potential,  either  by  additional  waters  or 
solid  matter.  Every  boulder  dropped  by  an  iceberg  in 
the  Atlantic  acts  as  an  atom  in  the  balance  of  conti- 
nents, and  so  sure  as  the  day  comes  when  the  ocean's 


226  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

weight  in  the  scale  becomes  so  great  as  to  move  the 
beam,  its  bottom  must  go  down !  It  matters  not  whether 
the  inmost  depths  are  a  molten  sea;  the  pressure  upon 
the  sea-bottom  can  become  so  great  as  to  fuse  the  deep- 
est strata,  and  force  it  laterally  under  the  continent. 
So  that  the  latter  are  to-day,  without  doubt,  supported 
by  rocks  or  molten  matter  interpolated  between  the 
solid  center  and  the  surface  by  pressure  from  the  seas. 
Thousands  of  feet  of  conglomerate  and  other  foreign 
matter  have  been  formed  into  beds  on  the  sea  bottom, 
and  thousands  of  feet  in  depth  have  been  added  to  the 
oceans.  And  when  we  see  that  many  times  the  upward 
movement  of  the  crust  has  been  simultaneous  in  differ- 
ent continents,  and  occurred  with  a  flood  or  ice  period, 
we  have,  it  seems  to  me,  no  possible  way  of  avoiding 
the  conclusions  here  drawn.  Now  when  we  take  a  com- 
prehensive glance  backward  upon  these  numerous  down- 
rushes  of  matter  from  on  high  we  cannot  wonder  longer 
at  the  constant  oscillation  of  sea  and  land  throughout 
the  geologic  ages.  We  see  forces  employed  competent, 
and  causes  adequate  to  accomplish  these  grand  results, 
and  we  see  them  acting  in  harmony  with  law;  in  har- 
mony with  nature  in  every  field,  astronomical  or  geo- 
logical. 

Now  as  we  look  over  the  hotly  contested  field  where 
the  glacialists  and  anti-glacialists  meet  in  interminable 
war,  we  can  plainly  see  the  real  cause  of  the  conflict. 
It  is  an  honest  difference.  Since  no  competent  source 
of  snows  can  be  found  on  earth,  Prof.  Dawson  has  de- 
clared substantially  that  a  great  continental  glacier  is 
a  physical  impossibility,  and  so  long  as  such  a  source 
cannot  be  found,  the  professor  stands  upon  a  rock  im- 
pregnable to  all  assault.  But  he  stands  a  hero  sur- 


A.  Brief  Review.  227 

rounded  by  fearful  odds.  A  dozen,  glacialists,  with. 
Prof.  Newberry,  one  of  America's  great  geologists,  at 
their  head,  have  examined  the  great  drift  areas  of  the 
world  with  honest  intentions,  and  their  practiced  eyes 
have  seen  too  much  not  to  know  the  glacier  track,  and 
the  universal  verdict  is  that  it  has  been.  Its  indelible 
way-marks  are  carved  as  with  an  instrument  of  iron  in 
and  on  the  living  rock.  The  blooming  valley,  the  lux- 
uriant forests,  and  the  mountain's  rock-ribbed  sides, 
have  felt  its  rude  embrace. 

Now  this  is  the  actual  state  of  the  question.  A  great 
continental  glacier,  without  a  competent  source!  I 
presume  the  great  champion  of  the  "  iceberg  theory  " 
would  be  one  of  the  very  first  men  to  admit  the  univer- 
sality of  glacial  action,  provided  an  efficient  source  of 
snows  could  be  found.  His  powerful  mind  is  too 
familiar  with  known  facts  not  to  see  that  this  is  now  the 
desideratum,  and  while  it  will  not  bend  to  unphilosophic 
demands  it  will  follow  the  dictum  of  law.  The  mistake 
of  the  glacialists  is  that  they  claim  the  earth  now  pos- 
sesses an  adequate  source  of  snows  when  every  feature 
of  philosophic  law  is  against  such  a  conclusion. 

But  where  are  the  glaciers  that  the  super-aerial  va- 
pors must  have  formed  as  they  gravitated  to  the  earth  ? 
If  both  these  parties  could  be  led  to  see  the  irresistible 
conclusion  demanded  by  the  philosophy  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  that  the  oceans  that  now  dash  around  the 
world  could  never  have  reached  the  surface  of  the 
planet,  except  by  snow  and  flood,  this  otherwise  inter- 
minable conflict  would  cease.  There  can  be  no  terres- 
trial source  of  continental  glaciers.  The  interior  of  a 
continental  glacier  could  not  be  fed  by  snows  from 
the  oceans  without  the  fraction  of  all  law.  The  decline 


228  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

of  the  earth's  annular  system  is,  I  think,  in  harmony 
with  every  requirement  both  of  the  glacial  and  anti- 
glacial  schools.  May  I  not  challenge  either  one  to  pre- 
sent a  feature  it  cannot  explain?  For  nearly  twenty 
years  I  have  seen  with  profoundest  regret  these  honest 
efforts  of  opposing  parties,  spent  as  they  ever  must  be, 
so  I  think,  in  fruitless  labor.  It  must  be  so.  It  must 
be  true  that  every  pound  of  the  grinding,  carving 
energy  of  the  mighty  glacier  was  stored  up  in  the 
earth's  annular  system  by  Pluto's  potential  arm.  The 
solar  beam  now  only  supplements  that  action  in  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  process  ever  circumscribed  by  law. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  famous  Sir  Charles  Lyell 
during  the  active  part  of  his  life  urged  upon  geologists 
the  important  fact  that  almost  from  the  dawn  of  recog- 
nizable changes  in  the  earth,  the  change  in  climate,  the 
extermination  of  species  and  the  change  of  ocean's  level 
were  a  triplicity  of  changes  that  always  remained  un- 
broken in  the  order  of  their  occurrence.  If  there  was 
a  climatic  change  there  was  a  new  distribution  of 
oceanic  waters,  and  at  the  same  time  old  organic  forms 
died  out,  or  were  depauperated  into  races  of  underlings, 
and  new  forms  came  into  existence  under  a  new  environ- 
ment. This  triplicity  in  the  grand  processes  of  world- 
making  is  most  significant  in  the  light  of  annular  de- 
clension. Those  great  warm  ages  in  medial  and  later 
geological  times,  when  the  world  enjoyed  a  tropical  or 
sub-tropical  temperature,  were  followed  by  ages  more 
or  less  arctic;  and  the  world  of  animals  that  sprung  into 
existence  in  the  warm  age  gave  way  to  species  of  a 
hardier  type.  Just  as  in  the  Adamic  period  races  of 
weaklings  gave  way  to  more  dominant  types,  so  in  all 
ages  the  same  physical  changes  must  have  had  the  same 


A  Brief  Review.  229 

far-sweeping  causes.  The  warm  climate  of  the  adam- 
ite  period,  and  the  competent  cause,  before  set  forth 
are  the  grand  keys  that  unlock  this  midnight  mystery. 

As  in  a  greenhouse  it  would  be  impossible  to  keep 
a  tropical  temperature  amid  the  cold  of  the  wintry 
world  without  a  protecting  roof,  so  it  seems  to  me  it 
would  be  as  impossible  to  convert  this  earth  into  a  tropi- 
cal world  as  it  hurries  on  its  way  amid  the  more  than 
arctic  cold  of  interplanetary  space,  unless  guarded  by 
a  protecting  canopy  of  vapors,  of  which  the  annular 
deep  was  a  necessary  source.  But  the  same  protect- 
ing roof,  under  which  the  hothouse  world  brought 
forth  its  hothouse  organisms,  by  its  fall  became  the 
very  source  and  cause  of  refrigeration  that  brought  in 
hardier  types,  and  mingled  them  together  on  the  same 
floor. 

When  we  see  animals  of  a  temperate  or  sub-temper- 
ate climate  solidly  frozen  up  in  eternal  ice,  how  can  we 
but  conclude  that  here  is  the  adequate  cause  of  the  cli- 
matic changes  that  have  so  frequently  swept  over  the 
earth  in  the  geologic  past?  The  record  is  plain.  The 
organisms  of  a  warm  climate  were  crushed  and  buried 
under  the  heel  of  winter.  Winter  could  not  have  set 
his  heavy  foot  upon  a  tropical  land  except  through  a 
fall  of  snows  in  the  polar  region.  Neither  could  the 
mighty  grip  of  the  Ice-King  have  been  softened,  and 
the  universal  sweep  of  glaciers  transformed  into  urg- 
ing floods,  except  through  the  involving  canopy.  And 
now  when  we  see  the  unmistakable  track  of  floods, 
"  vast  beyond  conception,"  at  the  very  time  the  glacier 
stretched  its  naked  front  across  the  continents,  need  we 
longer  marvel  at  this  triple  order  of  changes?  A  vast 
debacle  of  snow  and  water,  continuing  for  unknown  cen- 


230  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

turies !  The  pure  result,  a  new  distribution  and  condi- 
tion of  oceanic  waters,  refrigeration  and  consequent  ex- 
termination of  species! 

If  the  illustrious  Lyell  had  but  caught  one  glimpse 
of  the  cause  of  this  co-linking  of  changes  so  comprehen- 
sive, what  an  imperishable  monument  that  master-mind 
could  have  reared  for  the  admiration  of  the  world !  See 
the  limitless  snow-fields,  covering  much  of  the  Northern 
Hemisphere,  filling  the  valleys,  and  towering  over 
mountains,  until  one  vast  winding-sheet  hides  the  living 
continents!  The  revolving  vapors  having  fallen,  the 
sun  shines  down  upon  the  snows,  but  as  powerless  as  it 
now  shines  upon  the  glaciers  of  the  Alps  or  the  Him- 
alayas; the  ice-cap  could  not  by  this  have  been  softened 
into  floods.  But,  lo  !  Another  telluric  ring  gradually 
descends  into  the  atmosphere  and  over-arches  the  earth, 
and  the  ice-bound  continents  come  directly  under  the 
influence  of  a  hothouse  temperature.  Glaciers  could 
not  but  soften  and  melt  into  deluges,  "  vast  beyond  con- 
ception," in  such  a  world.  Time  rolls  on;  the  great 
glaciers  are  transferred  to  the  sea.  A  measureless 
pressure  is  lifted  from  the  continents,  and  placed  upon 
the  ocean's  bed,  and  that  bed  under  the  beck  of  law 
expands !  The  plastic  matter  against  which  that  bed  is 
planted  is  forced  latterly  under  the  edges  of  the  con- 
tinents, and  these  rise  in  the  balance  of  energies.  If 
this  be  not  the  process  by  which  this  order  of  changes 
is  brought  about,  where  else  shall  we  look  for  efficient 
causes  ?  Where  else  shall  we  find  a  philosophic  reason 
for  the  lifting  of  continents,  the  folding  of  strata, 
and  outbursts  of  liquid  rocks  at  the  very  time  of 
climatic  changes  ?  At  the  very  time  old  forms  die  out  ? 


A  Brief  Review.  231 

At  the  very  time  the  ocean's  wave  leaves  its  accustomed 
shores  and  rolls  to  other  lands  ? 

The  well-known  fact,  then,  that  majestic  and  far- 
sweeping  floods  closed  the  last  glacial  epoch,  it  seems 
to  me,  forever  demands  a  rapidity  of  ice  dissolution  that 
the  solar  beam  could  not  produce  through  the  clear  at- 
mosphere of  to-day.  And  since  we  must,  at  the  same 
time  we  are  looking  for  a  sufficient  cause  for  this  rapid 
melting  and  overwhelming  water,  also  look  for  the 
grand  cause  that  made  a  tropic  climate  succeed  refrig- 
eration, the  grand  cause  of  exterminations  and  moun- 
tain-making, the  task  is  infinitely  more  difficult  to  ex- 
plain without  the  aid  of  terrestrial  ring-falls.  If 
geologists  then  would  simply  admit  this  little  fact  that 
the  oceanic  waters  could  not,  and  did  not,  all  descend 
to  the  earth  in  primitive  times,  the  mystery  will  vanish 
at  once.  The  great  panorama  of  terrestrial  changes 
will  unfold;  for  it  must  be  seen  that  such  waters  upon 
reaching  the  earth  in  after  ages  could  not  but  cause  re- 
frigeration; could  not  but  cause  excessive  floods;  could 
not  but  cause  extermination  of  specific  forms;  could 
not  but  cause  new  distribution  and  conditions  of  Oceania 
waters,  and  finally  could  not  but  cause  crust-folding  and 
crumpling  of  strata. 


CHAPTER  XIL 

EVIDENCE  ADVANCED  IN  SUPPORT  OF  THE  CLAIM  THAT 

THE  EARTH'S  ANNULAR  SYSTEM  WAS  THE  SEED-BED 

OF  ORGANISMS,  AND  CONSEQUENTLY  A 

REGION  OF  MICROSCOPIC  LIFE  AND 

INFUSORIAL  FORMS. 

Not  many  years  ago  I  clipped  the  following  from  a 
newspaper  after  it  had  gone  the  rounds  of  publication 
in  some  of  the  leading  magazines,  and  was  accorded  by 
them  the  importance  of  an  established  fact : 

"  The  somewhat  rare  phenomenon  of  a  fall  of  golden- 
yellow  snow  occurred  in  the  midst  of  a  severe  storm  on. 
the  afternoon  of  the  27th  of  February,  at  Peckeloh,  in 
Germany.  A  specimen  of  the  water  melted  from  the 
snow,  after  being  kept  a  few  days,  was  microscopically 
examined  by  Weber,  who  describes  it  in  the  '  Wochen- 
schrift.'  He  found  that  it  contained  principally  four  di- 
ferent  kinds  of  germs  or  organisms,  shaped  respective- 
ly like  arrows,  coffee  beans,  horns  and  dark  flat  discs." 

In  the  year  1846,  Tenth  month  (October)  17th,  fell 
the  memorable  shower  of  microscopic  organisms,  near 
Lyons,  France.  This  shower  of  microscopic  germs  con- 
tained more  than  one  hundred  different  organized 
forms,  so  different  from  anything  terrestrial,  as  even  in 
that  day  to  suggest  to  many  of  the  French  savants  a 
"  cosmic  origin." 

A  shower  of  strange  organisms,  described  by  Darwin, 
which  fell  near  the  Cape  Verdes,  covered  more  than  a 
million  of  square  miles,  thus  proving  by  its  vast  extent 


Fig.  8.     SUN  WITH  PERIHELIA. 

Here  is  an  attempt  to  approximate  the  general  features  of  the 
solar  forms  that  must  have  whirled  their  daily  course  across  the 
vapor  heavens, — "  A  flaming  sword  that  turned  every  way." 
These  cherub  features  necessarily  accompanied  the  knowledge- 
giving  tree,  and  at  the  same  time  were  most  effective  world- 
guards  of  the  way  of  the  life-giving  tree.  While  they  flashed 
amid  the  vanishing  vapors,  neither  man  nor  any  living  thing 
could  partake  of  or  behold  those  life-prolonging  features  that 
thus  became  a  happy  type  of  the  Life  and  Way. 

It  is  now  freely  admitted  that  the  sword  and  the  cherubim 
of  Eden  were  solar  features  of  some  kind.  When,  then,  we  ad- 
mit the  canopy  as  the  true  solar  vicegerent,  we  see  how  these 
perihelia  must  be  allowed. 


Evidence  Advanced.  233 

that  it  had  an  origin  beyond  the  limits  of  the  terrestrial 
atmosphere. 

In  the  year  1803  a  great  shower  of  exotic  organ- 
isms fell  over  a  vast  territory  of  Italy  and  Southern 
Europe. 

In  the  year  1813  a  shower  of  organic  germs  fell  in 
Calabria,  and  from  specimens  subjected  to  microscopic 
examination  sixty-four  different  species  were  obtained. 

In  the  year  1755  one  fell  in  Northern  Italy,  "  cover- 
ing about  two  hundred  square  leagues,"  and  covering 
the  earth  in  places  to  the  depth  of  an  inch,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  shower  which  reached  into  Austria  fell  as 
colored  snow  in  the  Alps  to  the  depth  of  nine  feet.  As 
modern  researches  have  proven  that  colored  snows  are 
filled  with  organisms,  giving  the  color  thereto,  we  can 
scarcely  imagine  the  immensity  of  organic  matter  in 
such  showers,  and  can  hardly  conceive  it  to  have  had  a 
terrestrial  origin.  Homer  speaks  in  the  Iliad  of  one  of 
these  organic  showers.  In  Northern  Europe  such 
snows  have  frequently  been  seen,  and  sometimes  they 
have  been  accompanied  with  carbon  dust,  which  must 
have  had  its  origin  outside  of  the  realm  of  atmospherics 
oxygen.  A  few  years  since  such  a  shower  fell  in  West- 
ern Kentucky.  They  also  have  been  seen  in  Asia 
Minor  and  Palestine.  Microscopic  examination  of  polar 
snows  shows  that  they  are  permeated  with  organisms 
and  particles  of  cosmic  dust.  Dana  has  said  the  origin 
of  these  organisms  and  dust  is  unknown.  One  signi- 
ficant feature  in  the  case  is  the  great  similarity  of  the 
organisms  in  all  showers; more  than  300  different  forms 
have  been  determined  by  microscopists,  and  all  attempts 
to  find  a  terrestrial  origin  for  them  have  failed.  If 
they  had  been  taken  up  from  the  earth  in  whirlwinds 


234  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

and  tornadoes,  the  fact  could  easily  be  proven.  Those 
which  fall  in  Europe,  one  would  suppose,  would  be 
traced  to  Africa,  but  the  species  so  far  examined  prove 
that  they  do  not  come  thence.  Out  of  the  300  species 
only  fifteen  have  been  found  in  South  America  (Dana) 
In  the  showers  above  mentioned  (1803  and  1813),  the 
two  had  twenty-eight  species  in  common,  or  about  one- 
half.  Says  Dana,  the  "  zone  in  which  these  showers 
occur  covers  Southern  Europe,  Northern  Africa,  with 
the  adjoining  portion  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  corre- 
sponding latitudes  in  Western  and  Middle  Asia."* 
Some  decisive  tests  are  well-known — a  common  origin 
and  a  common  region  of  declension.  A  common  origin, 
because  of  so  many  species  in  common,  and  the  impossi- 
bility of  finding  a  terrestrial  source  show  that  these  or- 
ganisms have  their  source  either  in  the  atmosphere  of 
the  earth  or  beyond  it.  If  we  admit  that  source  to  be 
in  the  terrestrial  atmosphere,  we  at  once  contravene 
eternal  law;  for  in  that  case  we  presuppose  that  the  vast 
amount  of  matter  descending  as  dust  showers,  filled 
with  organisms,  was  made  in  the  atmosphere,  which 
could  not  be.  The  shower  that  fell  at  Lyons,  in  1846, 
was  estimated  by  Ehrenberg  at  360  tons,  and  45  tons 
of  it  consisted  of  organic  matter  of  more  than  100  dif- 
ferent species.  Well  might  Dana  exclaim,  after  con- 
sidering the  numberless  instances  of  such  falls :  "  With 
these  facts  before  us,  how  many  millions  of  hundred- 
weight of  microscopic  organisms  have  reached  Europe 
since  the  days  of  Homer?" 

Now  I  suppose  some  of  my  readers  will  hesitate  to 
admit  that  organic  germs  exist  co-extensively  with  mat- 

*  Dana's   "Manual."   page   634;    pee   also    Ehrenberg's    "Blood 
Rains,"  1847. 


Evidence  Advanced.  235 

ter.  When  we  know  that  there  is  not  a  spot  on  the 
earth,  nor  within  the  earth  beyond  the  limits  of  pres- 
ent or  former  igneous  activity  that  may  not  possess  or- 
ganic germs;  scarcely  a  spot  where  life  of  some  kind 
does  not  exist  or  has  not  existed;  when  we  see  the  at- 
mosphere everywhere  contains  floating  germs;  that  in 
hot  springs  and  in  polar  snows,  in  the  lava-built  walls 
of  volcanoes,  and  even  in  the  massive  beds  of  the  arch- 
sean  rocks  are  found  the  remains  of  life-forms,  it  seems 
to  me  we  are  forced  to  admit  the  universality  of  mater- 
ial organisms ;  that  they  are  co-existent  and  co-extensive 
with  matter.  Can  we  even  imagine  a  nebula,  anywhere 
floating  in  the  immensity  of  space,  that  does  not  contain 
life-germs  in  that  potential  condition  necessary  in  the 
evolution  of  life?  Because  we  are  familiar  with  cer- 
tain life-forms,  life-conditions  and  life-habits  in  a  com- 
pleted world,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  other  forms 
cannot  exist  in  an  incomplete  one.  The  dust  showers 
that  from  time  to  time  fall  upon  the  earth,  then,  have 
either  a  cosmic  or  tellurio-cosmic  origin.  They  may 
be,  it  seems  to  me,  micro-cosmic  clouds  moving  in  inter- 
planetary space,  which  meeting  with  the  earth  in  its 
path  are  precipitated  upon  its  surface.  Since  the  his- 
tory of  the  earth  reveals  the  fact  that  it  has  been  in 
many  conditions,  and  each  condition  has  had  its  pecu- 
liar forms  of  life  organisms;  and  since  every  environ- 
ment now  has  its  own  forms  adapted  thereto;  and  since, 
as  each  environment  becomes  modified  or  changed, 
the  organic  forms  are  also  changed  to  harmonize  there- 
with; we  see  it  to  be  the  declaration  of  law  that  almost 
every  condition  of  the  earth  has  had  its  peculiar  forms 
of  organic  matter.  Therefore  in  looking  back  to  any 
condition  of  terrestrial  elements,  save  perhaps  that  of 


236  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

plutonian  activity,  we  must  predicate  some  forms  of 
life.  Is  it  more  probable  that  the  omniscient  Dispen- 
ser and  Planner  would  place  life-germs,  or  living  forms, 
in  an  ocean  of  water  on  the  earth  than  that  He  would 
plant  them  in  potential  attitudes  in  those  oceans  before 
they  reached  the  earth's  surface  ?  Take  into  our  minds, 
for  instance,  the  last  or  outmost  vapors  that  fell  at  the 
time  of  Noah.  Having  remained  for  unknown  mil- 
lions of  years  on  high,  receiving  constant  addition  of 
meteoric  and  cosmic  dust  from  without,  and  having 
originally  received  material  distillations  as  vapors  aris- 
ing from  the  primitive  earth,  can  we  upon  mature  re- 
flection conclude  philosophically  that  that  revolving 
fund  of  matter  was  not  filled  with  organisms  as  surely 
as  the  gaseous  envelope  that  forms  our  atmosphere  con- 
tains them  now  ?  I,  for  one,  cannot  conceive  of  matter 
in  a  nebulous  condition,  which  is  not  yet  pregnant 
with  life;  since  life  is  the  original  and  primal  force- 
element  that  developed  into  all  we  now  behold.  Can 
any  philosophic  mind,  familiar  with  the  grand  history 
of  this  planet's  evolution  and  development  of  its  life- 
forms,  under  the  intelligent  direction  of  a  God  of  law, 
look  back  upon  the  earth's  annular  system  then,  and  not 
conclude  that  it  was  a  region  of  microscopic  life  and  in- 
fusorial forms  ?  Can  we  look  out  upon  the  annular  sys- 
tem of  Saturn  with  a  Designer  its  eternal  Pilot,  and 
disconnect  it  with  primordial  life  ?  Can  Jupiter's  belts, 
necessarily  composed  of  the  elements  common  in  the 
frame-work  of  worlds,  illuminated  and  warmed  by  the 
electrifying  and  vitalizing  power  of  the  solar  beam, — 
heaven's  material  vicegerent  in  the  development  and 
maintenance  of  physical  life, — roll  through  space  for 
millions  of  years,  lifeless  and  spiritless  ? 


Evidence  Advanced.  237 

Now  if  Jupiter's  belted  system  of  mineral,  metallic 
and  aqueous  matter  should  have  long  ago  descended 
upon  the  planet's  surface,  and  we  could  see  his  conti- 
nents and  oceans,  as  we  now  can  see  those  of  the  planet 
Mars,  we  would  conclude  that  animals  trod  its  conti- 
nents, swam  in  its  oceans  and  flew  in  its  air,— in  a  world 
of  completeness,  a  congeries  of  completed  life-forms. 
Then  we  are  only  following  a  line  of  philosophic  reason- 
ing to  conclude  that  a  world  of  incompleteness  must 
contain  incomplete  or  primordial  life-forms — forms 
that  must  in  time  develop  according  to  the  design  of  an 
Omnipotent  Planner  in  the  beginning.  We  see,  then, 
in  the  organic  yellow  snow-cliffs  of  Bathurst  and  Green- 
land, in  the  dust-showers  and  "  blood-rains  "  that  reach 
the  earth,  evidence  that  finally  leads  us  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  organic  forms  are  the  natural  accompaniments 
of  the  nebulous  and  elementary  forms  of  matter.  As 
we  move  along  in  this  discussion  we  will  see  how  true 
this  must  be.  If  such  were  not  the  case,  then  the 
eozob'n  canadense  and  its  related  forms  were  made  as 
an  immediate  and  separate  creation  after  the  archsean 
ocean  fell  to  the  earth,  and  following  this  the  silurian 
forms  in  all  their  variety  formed  an  individual  and 
separate  creation  after  the  silurian  annular  matter  fell. 
If  these  life-germs  were  planted  in  the  earth  alone,  af- 
ter the  oceans  declined  to  its  surface,  then  they  were 
planted  there  in  all  their  potentiality  at  that  time ;  and 
the  whole  scene  of  organic  evolution  would  be  one  un- 
interrupted transition,  without  a  "  break,"  without  a 
"  gap."  The  rocks  would  contain  all  the  transitional 
forms,  or  so-called  "  connecting  links."  But  how  very 
different  from  this  are  the  facts  scientists  are  well 
aware.  The  "breaks"  are  there;  the  "gaps"  are 


238  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

there,  and  the  geologist  cannot  fill  them.  The  "  links  " 
are  not  there,  and  he  can  never  supply  them.  Here 
now  we  have  room  and  material  for  a  volume  on  organic 
evolution  placed  upon  the  only  philosophic  foundation 
that  was  ever  laid  for  it — an  evolution  from  mona  to 
man  under  the  guide  of  law  that  began  in  the  earth's 
annular  system  and  terminated  in  its  fall.  As  I  cannot 
follow  these  ideas  very  far  without  swelling  this  volume 
beyond  proper  limits,  I  must  refer  the  reader  to  Vol- 
ume II  of  this  series. 

Some  of  my  readers  have  doubtless  heard  of  the  "  at- 
mospheric spider."  These  little  insects  have  legs,  and 
apparently  all  the  organs  that  the  common  spider  has, 
but  its  home  is  in  the  air.  It  has  the  power  of  throw- 
ing an  exceedingly  subtle  spider  line  with  an  actual 
float  on  the  end  of  it  that  rises  like  a  balloon  in  the  air, 
and  the  little  animal  clings  to  its  web  or  line,  and  floats 
off  in  the  atmosphere.  I  was  once  authentically  in- 
formed by  an  eye-witness  of  the  fact  that  during  a  cer- 
tain condition  of  the  atmosphere  countless  thousands 
of  these  spiders  descended  to  the  earth,  like  a  real 
shower  of  cosmic  dust,  and  that  for  several  hours  they 
existed  in  immense  numbers  on  the  earth.  However, 
toward  the  evening  of  the  day,  these  all  had  disap- 
peared, and  they  were  noticed  to  spin  lines  which 
floated  on  the  air  as  above,  and  then  clinging  to  them 
took  their  flight  into  the  air.  I  have  at  different  times 
beheld  real  gossamer  showers; — countless  millions  of 
lines  descending  from  the  heights  of  the  air,  so  thick  in 
the  atmosphere  as  to  counterfeit  the  glare  of  the  sun. 

My  readers  will  likely  remember  reading  in  White's 
"  History  of  Selborne  "  his  account  of  gossamer  show- 
ers which  he  had  seen.  One  in  particular  which  con- 


Evidence  Advanced.  239 

tinued  to  settle  for  nearly  a  whole  day  on  the  earth,  all 
coming  down  from  unknown  heights. 

Darwin  saw  a  spider  shower  in  1832  off  the  coast  of 
South  America,  60  miles  from  land.  He  also  spoke  of 
their  spinning  a  floating  line  or  lines,  which,  balloon- 
like,  bore  the  little  aeronauts  aloft.  A  writer  in  Cham- 
bers' Journal  says :  "  These  gossamer  showers  are 
great  mysteries,  the  air  on  these  occasions  becomes  lit- 
erally crowded  with  tiny  parachutes  composed  of  a  few 
threads  of  almost  invisible  gossamer,  each  of  the  para- 
chutes being  occupied  by  a  Lilliputian  aeronaut  in  the 
shape  of  a  very  small  but  active  spider."  This  same 
writer  speaks  of  having  seen  one  spider  shower  in  1875 
and  another  in  1880.  He  says :  "  Fixing  my  eyes  upon 
one  of  the  spiders,  I  observed  that  as  it  left  the  gossa- 
mer pathway  it  selected  a  clean  spot  on  the  iron  railing 
and  gathering  its  limbs  closely  together,  it  projected 
from  its  spinnerets  several  threads  which  expanded 
outwards  and  stretched  upwards  from  nine  to  twelve 
inches.  Then  this  parachute  seemed  to  show  a  buoy- 
ant tendency,  and  suddenly  the  tiny  creature  left  hold 
of  the  iron  rail,  or  was  lifted  off  it,  and  quickly  '  van- 
ished into  thin  air.' ' 

Dr.  Martin  Lister,  on  one  occasion,  in  York  City, 
went  to  the  top  of  the  Minster,  and  from  that  lofty 
height  still  saw  spiders  there  descending  from  heights 
unknown.*  Here  is  evidence  sufficient  to  prove  that 
in  the  heights  of  the  atmosphere  beyond  the  points  per- 
haps yet  reached  by  man  lives  a  race  of  spiders  which 
are  as  much  at  home  in  thin  air  as  man  is  on  earth. 
There  they  live  and  propagate;  there  exists  their  food. 
Thin  air  is  their  peculiar  habitat,  as  water  is  the  home 

'  "  Friend,"  Vol.  LVI,  pages  172  and  173. 


240  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

of  fishes.  Now  if  in  such  a  location  can  live  little  ani- 
mals in  countless  numbers  with  legs  and  perhaps  all 
the  organisms  peculiar  to  spiders,  we  may  reasonably 
conclude  that  a  cloud  of  vapor  and  cosmic  dust  floating 
in  interplanetary  space  is  also  the  abode  of  some  form 
of  life.  If  a  spider  can  live  in  thin  air,  and  also  de- 
scend and  live  a  while  on  the  earth's  surface,  it  could 
live  in  a  nebular  or  a  planetary  belt.  If  a  toad  can 
live  for  unknown  ages  immured  in  solid  rock,  where 
neither  air  nor  food  can  reach  it,  it  could  live,  I  pre- 
sume, in  a  revolving  belt  of  aqueous  and  mineral  mat- 
ter. 

Now  I  am  not  going  to  advance  the  claim  that  batra- 
chians  or  spiders  lived  in  the  earth's  annular  system. 
But  I  must  claim,  however,  that  the  manner  in  which 
specific  living  organisms  have  succeeded  each  other  on 
the  earth  as  revealed  by  the  geologic  record  demands 
that  that  system  was  the  cradle  of  infant  life, — the  pro- 
pagating beds  in  which  the  life-germs  were  placed  by 
the  great  Gardener  of  nature.  Men  may  laugh  at  this, 
but  it  is  not  half  as  ridiculous  as  to  claim  that  all  life 
came  from  monera  or  the  rizopods  in  the  primeval  ocean 
on  the  earth.  It  is  just  as  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
germs  took  form  in  the  waters,  under  the  Creative 
Hand,  before  they  fell  to  the  earth,  as  afterwards,  and 
when  we  see  that  each  and  every  downfall  brought  in 
new  life-forms  which  exhibit  no  specific  relation  to 
previous  forms,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  either  the 
seed-beds  of  the  annular  system  provided  the  undevel- 
oped organisms  or  there  was  a  special  creation  at  each 
period.  We  are,  I  say,  obliged  to  admit  this,  or  con- 
cede the  hiatus  separating  age  from  age,  and  form  from 
form.  We  are  obliged  to  admit  this,  or  forever  con- 


Fig.  9.     URANUS.     ( RINGS  FORMING.) 

Uranus  to-day  seems  to  possess  an  uncompleted  annular  sys- 
tem. As  the  centuries  roll  by  the  astronomer  may  see  the  two 
dark  bands  near  that  planet's  equator  joined  into  one,  and  lifted 
into  the  Uranian  skies,  an  actual  ring-appendage,  approximating 
at  least  the  completed  grandeur  of  the  planet  Saturn. 


Evidence  Advanced.  241 

cede  the  "  missing  link."  The  germs  that  came  in  with 
the  first  ocean  were  adapted  to  the  peculiar  waters  that 
fell  at  that  time,  and  the  germs  that  came  in  with  the 
second  downfall  were  adapted  to  the  waters  containing 
them,  and  the  two  kinds  of  germs  were  necessarily  dif- 
ferent, and  hence  the  different  forms  afterwards  devel- 
oped from  each.  Hence  the  hiatus,  hence  the  specific 
difference  in  forms  with  no  "  connecting  link." 

The  geologist  of  the  future  in  examining  the  in- 
fusorial beds  of  the  earth,  as  well  as  the  compound  na- 
ture of  some  of  the  earth's  giant  prodigies,  will,  I  am. 
sure,  welcome  the  annular  theory  to  his  aid.  It  seems 
to  me  that  if  all  the  upper  vapors  and  their  accompany- 
ing matter  had  descended  to  the  earth  in  primitive 
times  the  constitution  of  the  aqueous  crust  would  re- 
veal the  fact  by  a  very  different  structure.  The  reader 
can  now  see  that  the  ring  system,  before  it  had  taken 
the  annular  form  consequent  upon  the  cooling  and  con- 
densation of  the  mass,  must  have  contained  some  of  the 
vapors  of  all  the  vaporized  minerals  and  metals  of  the 
seething  globe.  That  as  the  vapors  cooled  and  con- 
tracted on  the  outer  boundary  of  the  mass  first,  but  a 
small  part  of  the  heavy  metals  would  be  contained  in 
the  outermost  ring  and  the  greatest  part  would  be  con- 
tained in  the  innermost  one.  And  that  when  the  inner- 
most ring  fell  to  the  earth  a  vast  amount  of  the  heavy 
mineral  and  metallic  matter  introduced  into  the  vapors 
when  in  a  heated  or  even  superheated  condition  could 
not  be  held  in  solution  when  cold,  as  it  could  be  when 
heated,  and  must  therefore  have  been  thrown  down 
from  the  archsean  waters  as  precipitates.  The  next 
ring  would  contain  minerals  and  metals,  but  to  a  small 
extent,  and  the  prevailing  minerals  and  metals  of  the 


24:2  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

outer  rings  would  be  of  a  lighter  character  or  in  a 
lighter  condition.  Doubtless  there  would  be  traces  of 
all  minerals  and  all  metals  in  all  the  rings  even  to  the 
very  outermost.  So  that  every  time  an  ocean  of  mat- 
ter descended  to  the  earth  there  would  be  some  prevail- 
ing element  in  that  downfall,  and  consequently  one  pre- 
vailing series  of  organisms.  Any  one  can  see  that  this 
would  be  the  arrangement  according  to  law.  Now 
geologists  must  know  that  in  each  grand  age  this  was 
the  case;  that  in  the  earliest  period  of  aqueous  deposi- 
tion the  metals  by  all  odds  prevailed.  In  the  silurian 
heavy  calcareous  matter  prevailed.  In  the  devonian 
the  silicious  and  silicio-calcareous  matter  prevailed.  In 
the  carboniferous  age  carbonaceous  matter  was  the 
characteristic  element,  and  each  ocean  had  its  charac- 
teristic life-forms.  Now  suppose  that  all  the  oceans 
had  reached  the  earth's  surface  in  pre-laurentian  times 
with  all  these  elements  held  in  solution  and  suspension. 
In  this  case  it  is  plain  that  all  these  mineral  and  metallic 
substances  would  have  been  precipitated  or  deposited  in 
and  from  the  primeval  ocean,  and  all  subsequent  forma- 
tions would  have  to  be  derived  from  these  early  formed 
beds,  or  from  cosmic  space,  and  life  would  have  been 
one  continued  evolution  without  a  break.  But  how  can 
we  imagine  that  after  40,000  feet  of  the  first  formed 
beds  had  been  laid  down,  and  the  oceans  expurgated,  we 
may  say,  the  terrestrial  waters  the  world  round  took 
up  another  vast  fund  of  matter,  first  in  the  shape  of 
the  carbonate  of  lime  (which  it  could  not  have  obtained 
in  such  vast  quantities  from  the  laurentian  beds),  which 
being  also  deposited,  the  same  waters  after  covering  up 
a  great  part  of  the  earth  with  a  massive  bed  of  lime,  in- 
stead of  re-charging  themselves  from  this  lime  bed,  re- 


Evidence  Advanced.  343 

fused  the  opportunity,  and  went  thousands  of  feet  be- 
low it,  and  took  up  an  enormous  load  of  magnesian  limei 
and  deposited  it  upon  the  carbonate  (having  called  in 
the  creative  fiat  to  fill  the  ocean  with  new  organisms). 
A  well-known  geologist,  after  having  been  staggered 
by  these  inconsistencies,  concludes  that  "  We  seem 
compelled  to  ascribe  the  difference  in  the  composition 
of  the  limestones  to  a  vital  rather  than  to  a  chemical 
or  physical  cause."  With  all  due  deference  to  high 
authority,  I  must  ask,  Is  this  question  settled  ?  Are  we 
to  expect  men  to  make  brick  without  dirt,  or  mortar 
without  mud?  By  what  imaginary  process  are  the 
marine  organisms,  such  as  the  millepores  and  other  in- 
vertebrates, to  build  thousands  of  feet  of  magnesian 
lime  rock,  extending  over  millions  of  square  miles,  un- 
less they  are  supplied  with  building  materials  ?  Whence1 
did  these  lithophites  get  the  magnesian  lime  with  which, 
they  built  this  mighty  casement  of  rock?  This  same 
authority  says :  "  A  preponderance  of  these  or  similar1 
organisms  might  produce  a  magnesian  limestone." 
(Italics  mine.)  This  question  is  not  settled  here. 
Neither  a  millepore,  nor  any  number  of  them,  nor  any 
"  organisms,"  "  similar  "  or  dissimilar,  can  make  a  lime 
rock  of  any  kind  unless  that  kind  of  material  was  at 
hand  as  a  magazine  of  supply.  Again  the  same  geolo- 
gist says,  as  if  to  share  the  responsibility  with  another : 
"  Prof.  J.  D.  Dana  has  shown  that  the  millepore  con- 
tains magnesia,"  etc. 

Now  I  presume  we  all  understand  that  these  animals 
built  the  dolomites  of  the  silurian  out  of  the  materials 
within  their  bodies!  This,  the  vital  process  that  built 
the  magnesian  lime  beds?  Thousands  of  feet  of  lime 
rock  of  continental  extent,  built  by  marine  organisms 


244  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

out  of  their  own  bodies !  But  where  did  these  animals 
get  the  magnesia  that  formed  a  "  large  percentage  " 
of  their  bodies?  Answer:  From  the  ocean  in  which 
they  lived !  Here,  then,  we  are  forced  back  to  our  very 
starting  point.  We  have  an  ocean  strongly  impreg- 
nated with  magnesian  lime,  and  yet  no  adequate  source 
beneath  the  annular  system.  What  would  my  readers 
think  of  my  logic  if  I  should  attempt  to  show  the  source 
of  this  magnesia  in  the  Silurian  ocean  by  putting  count- 
less millions  of  organisms  in  it?  We  do  not  want  to 
know  how  the  millepore  secreted  the  lime  rock,  nor 
how  he  got  his  magnesia.  We  want  to  know  how  the 
ocean  got  it!  Now  we  know  very  well  that  if  this 
silurian  ocean  did  not  contain  magnesian  lime  in  solu- 
tion the  millepore  would  not  have  been  there.  If  the 
waters  of  the  ocean  did  not  contain  oxygen,  where 
would  we  find  the  whale?  Here  is  the  logic  of  this 
question:  My  poultry-house  contains  a  chicken-thief 
with  a  "  large  percentage  "  of  fowls  in  his  possession; 
this  explains  how  my  chickens  got  into  the  house? 
Moreover,  if  a  "  large  per  cent."  of  feathers  should  be 
precipitated  on  the  floor  we  must  conclude  that  the 
thief  made  them. 

But  leaving  all  humor  for  the  pure  administration  of 
law  we  find  a  great  downfall  of  annular  waters  with 
their  accompanyiny  life-germs, — a  body  of  waters 
strongly  impregnated  with  magnesian  lime,  and  as  a 
pure  result  the  millepore  and  such  other  organisms  as 
found  here  a  natural  habitat,  came  into  being  therein, 
and  contained  a  "  large  percentage  of  magnesia  "  in 
their  bodies  because  it  was  their  home !  The  formation 
of  the  magnesian  limestones  came  as  a  legitimate  con- 
sequence of  its  presence  in  the  water,  so  also  came  the 


Evidence  Advanced.  245 

organisms  according  to  the  demands  of  law.  Such 
limestones  as  were  not  precipitated  from  actual  solu- 
tion, of  course  were  formed  by  vital  processes.  No  one 
will  hesitate  to  admit  that  such  a  process  will  build  a 
lime  stratum.  But  unless  lime  is  contained  in  the 
ocean  as  a  solution  the  stratum  cannot  be  formed; 
neither  can  the  builder  be  there.  Then  since  we  are 
obliged  to  find  a  source  competent  to  supply  this  meas- 
ureless fund  of  lime,  independently  of  the  millepore, 
both  carbonate  and  magnesian,  we  are  compelled  to 
bring  in  the  aid  of  the  annular  system.  Here  the  diffi- 
culty vanishes.  For,  as  before  shown,  there  was  a 
down-rush  of  snows,  a  glacial  period,  an  extermination 
of  species,  and  a  great  uplift  of  strata  just  previous  to 
the  formation  of  this  precipitated  bed,  which  now  comes 
in  as  a  master-link  of  evidence,  and  which  shows  that 
there  had  been  an  addition  to  the  ocean's  volume  at  this 
very  time,  and  which  must  have  come  from  the  annular 
system. 

I  presume,  then,  that  this  question  is  a  legitimate  one : 
Why  was  there  a  silurian  age  when  the  oceanic  waters 
of  the  entire  world  were  changed,  as  shown  both  by 
their  fossils  and  the  character  of  strata  ?  All  geologists 
know  that  the  change  from  the  eozoic  to  the  silurian 
waters  was  a  world-wide  one,  and  how  could  it  be  possi- 
ble for  the  same  waters  that  gave  origin  to  the  Potsdam 
sandstone  at  the  base  of  the  silurian  system,  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  kindred  lingula  flags  of  Europe,  supply  the 
stupendous  world  casement  of  lime  unless  there  had 
been  a  vast  augmentation  of  lime-waters?  These  lime 
beds  are  too  vast  and  measureless  to  be  made  by  the 
same  process  that  obtains  to-day.  Now  the  ocean  must 
have  obtained  its  lime  and  its  organisms  together.  It 


246  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

is  extremely  doubtful  whether  there  were  river  systems 
in  that  early  period,  and  consequently  river  erosion  was 
a  very  small  and  unimportant  and  uncertain  factor;  and 
the  evidence  is  daily  accumulating  that  rains  and  foun- 
tains and  streams  were  reduced  to  a  minimum.  It  was 
not  until  the  continents  had  been  worn  into  corruga- 
tions (hills  and  valleys)  that  fountains  could  burst  from 
the  hillsides,  and  not  until  living  fountains  existed  could 
there  be  perennial  streams.  How,  then,  did  the  infant 
continents  supply  detritus?  By  running  streams? 
Surely  not,  unless  these  were  fed  by  constant  and  ex- 
cessive rains.  But  almost  every  evidence  of  the  record 
points  to  the  fact  that  the  pre-existing  continent  whence 
it  is  claimed  that  the  silurian  seas  obtained  their  lime 
was  a  very  small  affair.  Thus  it  makes  no  difference 
how  the  geologist  supports  his  claim  that  the  lime  beds 
of  the  silurian  were  derived  from  older  continents,  he 
is  continually  arrested  by  the  demands  of  law.  I  pre- 
sume the  lime  beds  deposited  in  the  silurian  waters  are 
vastly  greater  in  volume  than  all  the  lime  that  has  been 
carried  from  the  existing  continents. 

But  the  difficulty  does  not  stop  here.  The  silurian 
lime  was  laid  down.  The  stupendous  piles  of  devonian 
rock  were  placed  upon  them.  The  carboniferous  came 
and  placed  a  heavy  mass  of  rock  of  all  kinds  upon  the 
devonian.  The  permian  ocean  rolled  its  waves  over 
these,  and  left  its  load.  Thus,  for  countless  ages,  the 
continents  were  worn  away.  Then  the  triassic  flood  de- 
posited its  load.  Then  the  Jurassic.  The  most  of 
these  were  oceans  peculiar  and  characteristic  of  their 
times.  All  had  their  peculiar  organisms.  As  before 
shown  they  began  their  career  in  the  midst  of  violence 
and  change.  Immediately  after  the  Jurassic  period 


Evidence  Advanced.  247 

came  the  cretaceous,  an  ocean  that  washed  the  shores 
of  the  whole  known  world.  Now  geologists  are  well 
aware  that  the  waters  of  the  cretaceous  period  were 
radically  different  from  those  that  preceded  it.  In 
many  parts  of  the  world  cretaceous  or  chalk  beds  were 
deposited — calcareous  beds  radically  different  from  any 
other  lime-formation.  From  what  continents  did  this 
ocean  get  its  lime  that  it  should  be  so  different  from 
every  other  lime-rock  of  the  earth?  As  we  have  in 
this  case,  as  in  all  others,  the  glacier  and  flood,  crump- 
ling and  death,  it  is  indeed  fitting  that  a  new  deposit 
at  the  same  time  should  predicate  a  new  ocean.  But  a 
new  ocean  points  to  the  waters  on  high ;  so  does  the  gla- 
cier, so  does  the  flood,  the  crumpling  of  crust,  and  the 
death  of  races.  If  the  cretaceous  deposits  were  only 
local  we  might  attribute  the  change  to  local  causes. 
But  it  was  a  change  that  left  its  way-marks  around  the 
circuit  of  the  earth.  It  is  these  far-reaching  and  some- 
times universal  changes  that  direct  us  unerringly  to  the 
tellurio-cosmic  matter  of  primitive  times.*  Before  we 
close  this  chapter  let  us  examine  one  more  feature. 

At  the  base  of  the  silurian  is  a  well-known  forma- 
tion in  America  known  as  the  Potsdam  sandstone,  and 
in  Europe  as  the  lingula  flag.  This  is  claimed  to  be 
the  product  of  the  retiring  waves  after  the  archaean 
upheaval;  or  the  advancing  waves  of  an  encroaching 
ocean.  Were  I  to  advance  the  claim  that  this  entire 


*  The  cretacious  beds  of  chalk  are  made  up  of  microscopic 
organisms,  strikingly  similar  to  those  found  in  dust  showers  and 
colored  snows,  and  could  not  have  been  derived  from  terrestrial 
beds.  Hence,  I  see  no  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  chalk 
beds  and  their  organisms  were  derived  from  the  annular  system. 
It  would  also  seem  that  the  flint  and  other  concretionary  forms 
therein  had  the  same  origin,  and  the  claim  that  that  system  waa 
the  seed-bed  of  organism  becomes  well-grounded. 


248  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

deposit  was  rather  the  wreck  of  rings  than  the  wreck 
of  continents,  my  readers  might  think  it  was  rather 
the  wreck  or  spoils  of  intellect.  But  look  at  the  vast- 
ness  of  this  formation.  It  underlies  the  silurian  of  the 
world.  It  spreads  from  Canada  to  Texas,  and  from  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  for  all  we 
know  it  is  a  casement  surrounding  the  world.  Waves 
must  have  had  this  stupendous  wreck  to  work  upon, 
or  they  could  never,  so  I  think,  have  laid  such  a  general 
bed  over  the  continents.  The  whole  mass  shows  pre- 
eminently a  mechanical  and  rapid  accumulation.  All 
that  is  required  for  this  wonderful  outspread  of  silicious 
beds  over  the  continents  is  a  telluric  ring  of  silicious 
matter,  in  which  was  an  opportunity,  nowhere  else 
afforded,  for  granulation  and  the  growth  of  concretion- 
ary structures  and  infusorial  germs.  Indeed,  if  tne 
countless  millions  of  aerolites  that  reach  the  earth's  sur- 
face can  form  in  interplanetary  and  interstellar  space 
into  solid  stones  and  pebble-like  forms,  what  reason  can 
be  shown  that  a  ring  of  vapors  surrounding  a  world 
once  melted  and  glowing, — a  world  in  whose  inveterate 
fires  silicious  matter  was  vaporized  and  made  to  com- 
mingle with  the  vapors  of  the  ring  system, — I  say  what 
reason  can  oppose  the  idea  that  these  silicious  vapors 
did  not  strongly  impregnate  the  aqueous  vapors  and 
call  in  its  life-germs  at  that  time  since  they  were  both 
in  the  system  together  ?  But  if  in  the  system  together 
they  must  have  separated  and  segregated  as  the  system 
condensed  into  granular,  crystalline  and  concretionary 
forms,  the  very  materials  in  the  stupendous  outspread 
at  the  base  of  the  silurian  system. 

Let   it   be   distinctly   understood   that   the   annular 
theory  admits  the  universal  eroding  powers  of  rivers  and 


Evidence  Advanced.  249 

waves;  the  transportation  power  of  currents  and  the 
continental  process  of  strata-building  from  detrital  mat- 
ter. But  with  all  this  admitted,  the  wave  of  ocean  can 
do  nothing  in  this  line  of  work  unless  it  is  supplied  with 
matter  with  which  to  work,  and  the  simple  question  is, 
Where  did  the  wave  get  this  crystalline  and  granulated 
and  infusorial  matter  to  spread  over  the  floor  of  the 
Silurian  ocean  ?  An  ocean  so  far  as  the  accompanying 
strata  show  was  spread  over  the  American  continent  at 
the  time  of  its  deposition.  It  underlies,  so  far  as  our 
information  shows,  the  whole  continent  of  North  Amer- 
ica. ISTow  it  is  altogether  out  of  reason  to  suppose  that 
this  wonderful  mass  is  a  detrital  formation  worn  from 
surrounding  continents  unless  we  admit  that  every  foot 
of  it  was  a  playground  of  shore  waves,  either  advanc- 
ing or  receding.  But  we  cannot  find  that  there  was, 
either  before  or  after,  a  continent  here  surrounded  by 
such  an  ocean.  We  can,  however,  find  a  fund  of  silicious 
matter  all  adequate  and  necessary  in  world-making, — 
a  fund  that  existed  before  a  wave  ever  washed  the 
earth,  and  which  must  be  found  in  the  earth's  crust. 
When  it  fell  with  the  descending  waters  we  can  con- 
ceive how  naturally  it  would  form  a  world-wide  bed  of 
matter.  I  presume  no  man  who  is  led  to  admit  the 
former  existence  of  a  great  primitive  aqueous  envelope 
surrounding  the  earth  will  for  a  moment  hesitate  to 
admit  that  those  primitive  vapors  did  contain  calcar- 
eous, silicious,  carbonaceous  and  metalliferous  regions 
consistent  and  favorable  to  some  forms  of  life-germs, 
and  that  when  the  ring  segments  fell  to  the  earth  these 
very  substances  spread  over  the  ocean's  floor  as  indi- 
vidual «beds.  We  have  seen  the  great  metallic  beds  in 
the  foundation  rocks  of  the  continents  just  where  we 


250  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

would  expect  to  find  them  according  to  annular  ar- 
rangement with  primordial  forms.  We  have  found 
great  primitive  calcareous  beds  in  harmony  with  this 
order;  and  when  we  take  a  comprehensive  glance  at  the 
Potsdam  beds  and  their  kindred  and  co-temporaneous 
beds  under  other  names,  spreading  as  a  coarse  mechani- 
cal deposit  over  so  much  of  the  known  world,  what 
philosophy  can  be  urged  in  support  of  the  claim  that  all 
parts  of  this  wide  expanse  have  successively  been  the 
ocean's  playground  of  shore-waves  ?  Thus  we  find  that 
our  theory  leads  to  astounding  conclusions.  The 
ocean's  waters  have  built  numberless  beds  of  limestone 
through  the  instrumentality  of  marine  organisms,  but 
the  annular  waters  supplied  the  builders  with  materials 
and  set  them  to  work.  Vast  beds  of  metals  kave  been 
laid  down  from  the  ocean's  waters  as  regular  stratified 
deposits,  which  could  never  have  been  borne  from  arch- 
aean  terranes,  and  must  therefore  have  been  supplied 
from  the  only  other  source, — the  primitive  vapors  that 
we  know  contained  them.  All  over  the  world,  in  all 
times  subsequent  to  the  archsean,  great  sand  beds  have 
been  formed,  and  these  originally  came  from  the  annu- 
lar fund.  But  let  it  be  remembered  that  while  this 
must  have  been  the  original  source  of  these  materials, 
the  ocean's  waves  have  never  ceased  to  work  upon  the 
wreck  of  rings,  devouring  the  original  beds  and  trans- 
ferring them  to  other  lands.  Rivers  wherever  they 
ran  have  eroded  with  resistless  appetite,  and  fed  the 
ocean  with  its  own  beds  formed  again  and  again.  I 
freely  admit  that  this  work  has  progressed  from  that 
early  day  when  the  first  ocean  baptized  the  infant  earth ; 
but  in  addition  to  all  this  great  labor  of  tearing  down 
and  rebuilding,  a  hundred  times  or  more  the  annular 


Evidence  Advanced.  251 

waters  have  descended,  and  in  their  rush  to  the  seas 
have  laid  mechanical  beds  of  materials  torn  from  mil- 
lions of  valleys,  which  could  never  have  been  otherwise 
formed,  and  at  the  same  time  added  their  own  fund  of 
exotic  matter  to  these  beds.  Exotic  matter  of  all 
kinds — lime,  iron,  sulphur,  salt,  etc.,  etc. — have  hereby 
entered  into  the  various  formations  of  the  later  ages. 
We  have  seen  in  almost  all  lands  great  beds  of  iron 
in  the  mechanical  deposits  of  later  ages.  In  the  hills 
of  my  own  State  and  country  are  stupendous  masses  of 
iron  ore — true  sedimentary  formations,  more  than  400 
miles  distant  from  any  primitive  metallic  beds.  Tell 
me,  how  was  this  metallic  matter  carried  from  older 
beds  and  deposited  here  ?  If  I  am  told  that  it  was  the 
product  of  organic  distillation  I  must  demur,  and  the 
rocks  themselves  are  my  witnesses.  If  told  that  the 
annular  system  was  permeated  by  metallic  dust,  and 
that  as  it  reached  the  earth  in  almost  all  lands  beyond 
the  tropics,  we  can  readily  understand  why  there  is  so 
much  metallic  ore  of  lighter  specific  gravity  in  the 
more  recent  geologic  strata;  and  when  I  turn  and  see 
these  beds  more  abundant  in  regions  outside  of  the 
tropics,  where  upper  matter  must  have  fallen,  if  it  ever 
fell,  and  when  I  reflect  that  if  these  ores  had  been  a  veg- 
etable product  they  ought  to  be  more  abundant  within 
the  tropics  where  vegetation  is  most  abundant,  I  am 
led  to  conclude  that  much  of  the  iron  ores  of  the  car- 
boniferous beds  had  an  annular  origin. 

Suppose  a  grand  decline  of  annular  matter  from  near 
the  middle  of  the  system  should  occur.  Where  would 
we  expect  to  see  its  effects?  If  they  were,  registered 
in  the  rocky  volume,  would  we  not  expect  to  find  them 
in  that  geological  horizon  embracing  the  later  devon- 


252  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ian,  the  carboniferous,  etc.,  perhaps  extending  into  the 
cretaceous?  Since  then  we  would  expect  to  find  the 
very  heaviest  matter  in  the  innermost  rings,  and  the 
very  lightest  in  the  outermost,  and  having  found  this 
heavy  matter  in  the  first  formed  beds,  and  the  lightest 
prevailing  in  the  latest,  we  must  expect  to  find  this  mid- 
horizon  characterized  by  a  more  abundant  supply  of 
matter  of  medium  specific  gravity  from  the  middle  of 
the  annular  system.  We  certainly  would  not  expect 
to  find  the  salts  of  soda  and  lime  largely  developed  in 
the  same  annular  region  with  iron,  lead,  silver,  copper, 
etc.,  nor  on  the  other  hand  would  we  expect  to  find 
these  salts  to  much  extent  developed  in  the  latest 
formed  beds.  The  last  descending  vapors  must  have 
been  nearly  free  from  these.  But  where  in  the  geo- 
logic column  do  we  find  such  substances  more  largely 
deposited?  In  this  mid-empire  of  the  ages!  Where 
are  the  salt  and  gypsum  formations  of  the  world  ?  Even 
those  on  the  very  surface  of  the  earth,  as  in  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region,  have  been  derived  from  beds  of  these 
middle  ages.  I  am  sure  a  full  history  of  these  medial 
formations,  when  written,  will  present  this  philosophic 
order  of  original  deposition,  and  that  all  more  recent 
beds  may  be  traced  to  these  first  deposits.  Enough  is 
already  known  to  show  this  order;  this  intelligent  plan 
laid  in  the  earth's  primitive  envelope.  Can  we  at  most 
show  any  reasonable  method  by  which  the  oceans  of 
medial  ages  obtained  these  salts  from  the  primitive 
beds,  even  if  they  were  known  to  contain  them  ? 

And  now  when  we  take  into  consideration  the  reliable 
statements  of  Arctic  explorers  of  the  existence  of  salt 
beds,  salt  marshes,  etc.,  in  polar  lands,  where,  above  all, 
we  would  expect  to  find  the  least,  according  to  the  old 


Evidence  Advanced.  253 

theory,  and  the  greatest  quantities,  according  to  the 
new,  what  can  be  urged  against  the  claims  here  set 
forth?  These  are  the  considerations  that  will  bring 
the  annular  theory  to  the  test.  To  these  I  freely  sub- 
mit it. 

Thus  the  annular  system,  the  great  seed-bed  of  organ- 
isms, in  its  final  wreck  and  new  arrangement  in  the 
super-crust,  not  only  becomes  a  self-supporting  argu- 
ment of  an  intelligent  plan  in  strata-building,  but  it 
affords  the  key  that  unlocks  the  deepest  mysteries  of 
organic  evolution  in  the  measureless  ages  of  the  past. 
If  men  of  this  age  refuse  to  use  this  key,  other  men  will 
gladly  embrace  the  opportunity  when  we  are  in  our 
graves.  My  chief  desire  is  that  some  persons  more 
competent  than  I  am  may  take  these  things  here  pre- 
sented in  their  rude  state,  and  prepare  them  for  the 
majestic  building  which  the  faultless  Architect  has 
planned,  and  who  is  calling  for  builders. 

Can  these  be  overdrawn  conclusions  ?  What  do  the 
great  "  gaps  "  and  "  missing  links  "  in  the  record  mean 
— these  evolutions  of  life-forms  brought  up  to  a  certain 
limit,  then  a  cessation,  then  a  leap  forward  on  the  plane 
of  progress  ?  If  we  admit  that  each  ring-section  neces- 
sarily held  its  own  peculiar  life-germs,  and  each  suc- 
ceeding one  germs  one  step  nearer  perfection  in  the 
goal  of  life,  as  demanded  by  their  position  in  the  sys- 
tem, how  the  confusion  vanishes !  How  harmonious 
the  gradation,  from  the  moneron  of  the  first  or  primi- 
tive life  element  in  the  dark  deep  of  chaos,  to  the 
grand  platform  of  physical  light  and  life !  If  we  spurn 
these  conclusions,  where  do  we  stand?  Spurn  them, 
and  we  are  compelled  to  admit  either  numberless 
specific  and  especial  creations,  or  a  most  unreasonable 


254  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

and  unphilosophic  evolution  of  one  species  from  an- 
other. Reject  these  conclusions,  and  we  will  then  be 
forced  to  admit  that  all  the  multifarious  forms  of  life 
now  on  the  earth,  including  man,  were  planted  poten- 
tially in  organisms  of  the  archaBan  waters;  and  further, 
that  this  plan  of  evolution  was  so  directed  by  the  Crea- 
tive Hand  that  it  stopped  short  again  and  again,  and 
started  again  upon  a  loftier  platform  of  life — i.e.,  with 
new  forms,  only  to  stop  and  leap  again.  Which  line  of 
evolution  will  the  reader  choose:  That  which  carries 
the  whale  from  the  rhizopod  of  the  primitive  seas  over 
numerous  breaks  in  the  line,  or  that  which  leads  it  to 
perfection  from  its  own  original  life-germ  planted  in  its 
own  soil  ?  Is  it  not  more  reasonable,  and  in  the  line  of 
law,  that  man  should  arise  from  his  own  especial  or- 
ganisms in  his  own  environment,  a  germ  of  God's  right- 
hand  planting,  than  that  he  should  descend  from  the 
little  moneron  of  the  eozoic  seas  by  innumerable  sud- 
den starts  through  countless  millions  of  years  in  the 
specific  organisms  of  a  thousand  environments,  as  the 
oyster,  the  ammonite,  the  fish,  the  bird,  the  ape,  etc., 
etc.,  to  the  illustrious  Darwin  ?  I  am  not  willing  to  ad- 
mit that  that  great  man,  to  whose  memory  the  world 
owes  a  debt  it  cannot  pay,  came  through  such  a  line  of 
descent  when  a  more  philosophic  and  intelligent  one  is 
open  to  my  view. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A     CONSIDERATION     OF    THE    EVIDENCE    THAT    INEVITABLY 
LEADS  TO  THE  CONCLUSION  THAT  THE  CARBON  STRATA 
OF   THE   WORLD   WERE   DEPOSITED  AS  AN   AQUEOUS 
SEDIMENT  FROM  THE  EARTH'S  ANNULAR  SYSTEM 
WHERE  IT  HAD  REMAINED  FOR  COUNTLESS 
AGES  AS  A  PRIMITIVE  DISTILLATION, 
EXPELLED  FROM  THE  INCANDES- 
CENT OR  BURNING  EARTH. 

In  millions  of  bogs  and  swamp  marshes  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  the  decay  of  a 
characteristic  vegetation  gives  rise  to  carbonaceous  beds 
of  matter  called  peat.  This  peat  when  placed  in  the 
retort  of  the  gas  furnace,  and  subjected  to  heat,  as  in 
the  manufacture  of  burning  gas,  may  be  made  to  give 
rise  to  various  products  or  distillations,  from  the  heavy 
form  of  graphite  and  asphaltum  to  the  lighter  forms  of 
oily  hydro-carbons,  such  as  are  found  in  the  earth's 
sedimentary  crust,  under  various  names,  and  chiefly  as 
stone  coal,  or  simply  coal.  It  was  very  natural  for  the 
philosopher  to  conclude  that  the  coal  strata  of  the 
earth  were  mineralized  or  metamorphosed  vegetation, 
since  it  was  well-known  that  peat,  subjected  to  the 
proper  treatment,  might  be  made  to  yield  these  pro- 
ducts. And  as  there  is  now  no  other  terrestrial  means 
than  rock  pressure,  and  the  native  heat  of  the  planet's 
crust,  adequate  to  produce  these  products,  men  were 
honestly  led  to  the  conclusion,  which  now  prevails,  that 
the  coal  beds  of  the  world  are  of  vegetable  origin.  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that  I  admit — that  all  men  must  ad- 


256  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

mit — that  vegetation,  when  the  necessary  conditions  are 
present,  must  become  a  mineralized  carbon  fuel.  To 
conclude  otherwise  would  be  a  fraction  of  inexorable 
law.  Hence  no  future  criticism  upon  the  theory  I  shall 
presently  advance  would  be  in  order  upon  this  branch 
of  the  question,  since  I  am  forced  to  stand  upon  the 
self -same  foundation  that  all  scientists  must  stand  upon. 

But  standing  upon  this  foundation  we  must  erect  an 
edifice  in  harmony  therewith.  We  must  not  allow  a 
stone  to  enter  the  structure  that  has  not  been  squared 
and  dressed  by  the  Master  Hand  of  Law.  Stones,  lying 
ready  prepared  in  the  vast  quarry  of  nature,  must  be 
our  building  material. 

Then  with  the  full  understanding  that  the  slow  com- 
bustion in  a  swamp  marsh  or  peat  bog  under  favorable 
conditions  gives  rise  to  fuel  carbon  of  various  degrees 
of  mineralization,  we  will  begin  our  examination  of  this 
momentous  problem. 

First:  It  will  be  fully  conceded  by  every  scientific 
and  philosophic  mind  that  the  natural  change  of  vege- 
table organisms  to  the  form  of  elementary  products  in 
peat  formation  is  a  combustion,  or  slow  distillation,  by 
which  the  elements  of  the  compounds  forming  the  body 
of  the  plant  are  dissociated  and  made  to  pass  into  other 
forms.  And  in  which  combustion  carbon  particles  re- 
leased from  their  associations  remain  in  an  unburnt  con- 
dition. In  other  words,  the  carbon  comprising  the  peat 
bed  is  simply  unconsumed  carbon. 

Second :  This  unconsumed  carbon  product  of  swamp 
combustion  is  the  same  as  the  unconsumed  carbon  of 
any  other  combustion  or  distillation  in  which  the  car- 
bon element  is  involved,  under  whatever  circumstances 
said  combustion  takes  place. 


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Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  257 

These  are,  as  all  can  see,  self-evident  propositions — 
propositions  to  which  we  are  all  irretrievably  commit- 
ted, and  I  want  the  reader  to  see  that  we  diverge  not 
from  this  in  our  line  of  argument.  I  ask  my  brother 
geologists  to  give  me  their  attention  for  one  hour;  and 
I  will  give  them  in  return  for  their  kindness  a  theory 
of  coal  formation  planted  upon  this  rock.  A  theory 
that  must  be  true  from  the  very  nature  of  the  problem, 
and  which,  if  true,  must  explain  every  difficulty  in- 
volved therein. 

From  these  considerations  it  is  manifestly  certain  that 
the  combustion  that  takes  place  in  a  stove  or  fire-place 
is  precisely  similar,  except  in  intensity,  to  that  which 
evolves  unconsumed  carbon  from  swamp  vegetation, 
and  that  the  unconsumed  carbon  that  arises  from  our 
chimneys  and  locomotives  in  the  form  of  smoke  is  the 
same  carbon  element  which,  resulting  from  the  decay 
of  peat  vegetation,  sinks  to  the  bottom  of  the  marsh. 
The  processes  are  necessarily  parallel,  producing  the 
same  elementary  changes  and  the  same  products. 

One  process  deposits  its  unburnt  carbon  in  the  bog. 
where  it  is  sealed  away  from  that  universal  devourer, 
oxygen,  and  where  it  remains  a  veritable  fuel.  The 
other  process  sends  its  unburnt  carbon  into  the  air, — 
into  an  ocean  of  oxygen,  a  veritable  fuel,  which  is  im- 
mediately re-burnt  and  converted  into  invisible  carbonic 
anhydride  by  its  union  with  this  free  oxygen  of  the  air. 
If  no  oxygen  were  in  the  air  ready  to  seize  upon  this 
carbon  fuel,  the  atmosphere  would  in  a  short  time  be- 
come filled  with  it,  and  as  it  became  saturated  with  the 
moisture  with  which  it  comes  in  contact  it  would  set- 
tle upon  the  earth  as  carbon-dust — a  veritable  fuel,  the 
very  same  in  kind  that  is  sealed  in  the  peat  bog.  Some 


258  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

portion  of  the  unburnt  carbon  which  arises  in  our  fire- 
places does  actually  escape  this  devourer,  and  adheres 
to  the  back  wall,  chimney  or  stove-pipe  as  an  uncon- 
sumed  carbon  product — a  veritable  fuel,  which  takes 
fire  and  burns  as  every  one  will  admit.  Who  has  not 
seen  the  "  chimney  on  fire  ?"  Who  has  not  seen  the 
oily  carbon  on  the  back  wall  where  wood  or  bituminous 
coal  is  burnt  take  fire  and  burn — thus  proving  to 
every  beholder  the  unavoidable  conclusion  that  the  car- 
bon or  smoke  that  arises  from  every  chimney  and  fur- 
nace of  the  earth  when  measurably  shut  up  from  imme- 
diate union  with  oxygen  remains  an  unburnt  fuel,  pre- 
cisely the  same  in  kind  as  the  unburnt  carbon  fuel  of 
the  peat  bog? 

If  we  were  to  collect  the  unburnt  carbon  from  our 
chimneys  into  piles,  where  moisture  and  air  could  have 
free  access,  it  would  take  fire  spontaneously  and  burn; 
as  it  is  well  known  that  many  a  disastrous  fire  has  oc- 
curred from  this  source  alone ;  just  as  peat  dug  from  the 
bog  sometimes  takes  fire  spontaneously. 

Thus  in  every  particular  the  smoke  that  arises  from 
every  combustion  in  which  carbon  is  an  element  is  an 
exact  counterpart  of  the  carbon  arising  from  the  decay 
of  swamp  or  peat  vegetation,  and  hence  we  are  com- 
pelled to  accept  this  conclusion:  that  the  millions  of 
fires,  foundries  and  volcanoes  of  the  globe  that  pour  im- 
measurable volumes  of  unconsumed  carbon  into  the  at- 
mosphere are  forming  fuel  wherever  soot  is  formed; 
and  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  ever-active  oxygen  of 
the  air  it  would  all  descend  upon  the  earth  as  a  fuel, 
and  become  incorporated  in  the  forming  sedimentary 
beds  of  the  earth  as  such,  and  under  favorable  circum- 
stances it  would  be  collected  by  water  currents  into 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  259 

beds  of  fuel !  Here,  then,  just  as  we  are  entering  the 
threshold  of  the  coal  question,  while  starting  commit- 
ted to  the  fact  of  peat  formation,  we  are  driven  by  the 
implacable  demands  of  law  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  another  and  a  parallel  process  producing  the  very 
same  effects!  How  can  we  possibly  avoid  the  conclu- 
sion, then,  that  if  a  terrestrial  fund  of  rising  smoke 
should  be  in  sufficient  quantities,  and  should  arise, 
amidst  a  fund  of  aqueous  vapors  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  devourer  oxygen,  that  all  the  coal  beds  of  the  earth 
could  have  been  formed  by  that  returning  fund  ?  There 
is  no  avenue  of  escape  from  this  conclusion ! 

Our  next  duty,  then,  is  apparent.  If  the  coal  beds  of 
the  world  were  not  formed  by  a  process  of  vegetable 
decay,  they  were,  in  whole  or  in  part,  formed  by  this 
parallel  process!  And  we  must  now  proceed  to  show 
that  although  a  fuel  carbon  is  necessarily  formed  when 
vegetable  decay  is  arrested  in  a  swamp  marsh,  yet  this 
decay  or  combustion  is  so  complete  that  the  products 
are  utterly  inadequate  to  form  great  continental  coal 
strata.  When  we  shall  have  shown  this  we  will  pro- 
ceed to  show  that  an  immeasurable  fund  of  unconsumed 
carbon,  or  simply  smoke,  went  up  from  the  igneous 
earth  for  countless  ages,  pouring  a  vast  fund  of  fuel 
carbon  into  the  primitive  vapors  that  surrounded  the 
burning  and  incandescent  sphere  and  which  fell  with 
those  vapors  from  our  annular  system,  and  floating 
away  into  the  ocean  settled  upon  its  floor,  with  the 
vegetation  involved. 

Men  to-day  are  in  the  habit  of  pointing  to  peat  bog 
distillation  of  carbon  as  the  origin  of  coal  in  its  earliest 
formation.  This  is  only  one  more  illustration  of  the 
universal  disposition  of  the  human  mind  to  accept  con- 


260  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

elusions  drawn  immediately  from  appearances  only. 
Such  illusory  evidence  has  more  than  once  involved 
some  of  the  sublimest  truths  in  the  deepest  clouds. 

When  the  plant  dies  and  begins  to  decay  one  of  its 
constituent  elements,  carbon,  oxidizes  in  a  process  of 
slow  combustion,  and  returns  to  the  air  as  an  invisible 
gas.  Now  it  is  only  when  as  by  accident  a  particle  of 
this  carbon  fails  to  become  oxidized  that  it  remains 
as  an  unconsumed  atom,  and  then  by  accident  becomes 
sealed  away  from  oxygen,  ever  alert  and  active.  It  is 
therefore  an  exceedingly  small  part  of  the  world's  vege- 
tation that  is  left  as  unburnt  fuel  in  peat  bogs.  Let 
us  not  forget  that  this  swamp  combustion  is  precisely 
that  which  takes  place  in  every  furnace  and  fire-place 
on  earth  (time  being  left  out  of  the  account).  Just  as 
a  very  small  part  of  the  smoke  ascending  from  the 
coke  oven  or  volcano  is  left  and  formed  into  a  fuel,  and 
fails  to  combine  with  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  and  con- 
sequently adds  but  an  infinitesimal  amount  to  the  un- 
consumed carbon  of  the  earth,  so  is  it  with  vegetable 
decay.  Now  we  all  will  admit  that  all  the  carbon  in 
the  earth's  crust  was  derived  in  a  primitive  distillation 
from  the  mineral  world  that  originally  contained  it. 
Were  it  not  for  this  primitive  process  an  atom  of  peat 
carbon  could  never  have  been  found;  for  the  plant 
could  never  have  obtained  it.  The  formation  of  peat 
carbon,  then,  is  at  most  a  secondary  process;  and  who 
will  fail  to  see  that  if  through  vegetation  and  peat  alone 
carbon  or  coal  had  its  origin,  then  the  primitive  pro- 
cess is  entirely  ignored?  But  every  man  of  reason 
must  own  that  the  very  primitive  process  that  gave  car- 
bon to  the  primitive  atmosphere  for  the  use  of  the  plant 
gave  it  forth  in  the  same  form  that  the  plant  itself  does 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  261 

— as  an  unconsumed  carbon  fuel !  Why,  then,  should 
the  earth  in  after  times  institute  a  secondary  process 
to  produce  the  fuel  form  of  carbon  it  already  had 
formed  by  the  primitive  process?  Then  I  repeat  that 
on  the  very  threshold  of  the  coal  problem  we  find  that 
we  are  forced  by  unyielding  law  to  admit  that  there 
was  a  stupendous  fund  of  fuel  carbon  produced  by  a 
process  parallel  to  peat  distillation,  but  previous  to  it 
in  time.  In  short,  there  is  no  way  of  escaping  the  con- 
clusion that  every  atom  of  carbon  in  the  coal  beds  of 
the  earth,  even  if  they  were  wholly  a  vegetable  product, 
was  previously  produced  from  the  mineral  earth  by  an 
original  process.  Consequently  the  discussion  of  this 
problem  in  the  very  beginning  demands  serious  consid- 
eration from  men  of  thought. 

It  cannot  but  be  then  that  a  secondary  and  fortui- 
tous process  of  fuel  making  must  fall  behind  the 
original  one  in  importance.  As  in  the  great  supply  of 
lime  to  the  primitive  ocean  there  was  a  call  and  de- 
mand for  organisms  to  use  up  the  surplus  of  calcareous 
matter  in  aqueous  solution  after  the  beds  were  precipi- 
tated, so  after  the  deposit  of  the  fuel  carbon  was 
there  a  demand  from  the  earliest  ages  for  vegetation  to 
use  the  surplus  carbon  in  the  atmosphere.  But  what 
a  puny  process  compared  with  that  grand  sublimation 
and  distillation  in  the  igneous  earth! 

But  let  us  admit  that  by  some  unseen  and  fortuitous 
means  the  original  carbon  fuel  was  afterwards  meta- 
morphosed into  plant  food,  and  was  eventually  retrans- 
f ormed  into  fuel.  Let  us  admit  this  just  to  see  how  we 
can  come  to  the  erudite  conclusion  that  coal  is  a  vege- 
table product.  On  this  supposition  every  atom  of  car- 
bon in  the  carbon-beds  of  the  world  has  existed  in  the 


262  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

air,  or  elsewhere,  in  union  with  oxygen  as  an  invisible 
gas  (carbonic  anhydride).  For  in  this  form  alone 
can  it  enter  into  the  economy  of  the  plant.  But  to  in- 
sure this  production  of  plant  food  the  carbon,  as  it  is- 
sued from  the  fires  of  the  igneous  earth,  must  have 
been  poured  into  an  ocean  of  free  oxygen.  For  if  this 
were  not  the  case  the  carbon  still  remained  an  unburnt 
fuel,  which  the  plant  could  not  use.  Now  while  it  is 
very  unphilosophic  to  suppose  an  ocean  of  free  oxygen 
attending  an  igneous  or  incandescent  world,  it  is  also 
susceptible  of  the  plainest  proof  that  if  all  the  oxygen 
in  the  super-crust  had  been  present  in  the  primitive  at- 
mosphere it  could  not  have  saturated  the  carbon  of  the 
coal  measures.  Then,  again,  if  this  remaining  unburnt 
carbon  ever  afterwards  became  plant  food,  in  order  to 
produce  coal,  it  did  so  through  the  process  of  spontan- 
eous combustion,  after  it  had  been  once  formed  in  the 
presence  of  oxygen  and  sealed  away  from  its  ravages. 
But  if  this  be  true,  how  does  it  happen  that  the  very 
same  unburnt  carbon,  in  the  form  of  peat,  having  the 
same  opportunity  to  spontaneously  burn,  does  not  also 
undergo  the  same  change  ?  The  conclusion,  then,  is  in- 
evitable that  unburnt  carbon  fuel  of  the  igneous  era 
was  stored  away  in  the  earth's  crust.  And  if  not  still 
there  has  suffered  spontaneous  combustion,  and  has 
been  again  converted  into  fuel,  which  cannot  spontan- 
eously burn,  which  is  simply  preposterous  and  absurd. 
The  fact  that  the  carbon  in  the  peat  beds  of  the  earth 
has  not  thus  disappeared  is  substantial  evidence  that 
the  combustible  unconsumed  carbon  of  the  igneous  era 
did  not,  since  they  were  necessarily  the  same  in  kind. 
Now  where  are  we?  The  advocate  of  the  vegetable 
origin  of  coal  is  compelled  to  hang  upon  one  horn  of 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  263 

this  dilemma,  or  both,  if  he  choose.  If  he  advocate  the 
existence  of  a  universal  sea  of  free  oxygen  around  the 
igneous  earth  then  he  must  admit  that  there  were  no 
residual  carbon  products,  and  we  will  grant  this  con- 
clusion, for  argument's  sake. 

No  residual  carbon  products  mean  no  primitive  car- 
bon beds,  and  that  all  coal  beds  are  mineralized  vegeta- 
tion. But  these  necessitate  an  ocean  of  oxygen.  Let  us 
grant  this.  But  this  forces  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
immediately  after  the  igneous  era  and  during  all  the 
ages  from  the  archaean  to  the  later  tertiary  there  ex- 
isted about  the  earth  a  universal  sea  of  plant  food  (car- 
bonic anhydride).  Dana,  seeing  this  inevitable  con- 
clusion, says :  "  The  atmosphere  now  contains  less  car- 
bonic acid  than  it  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  carbon- 
iferous period  by  the  amount  stored  away  in  the  coal 
of  the  globe,"  and  yet  the  same  high  authority  says 
"  much  more  carbonic  acid  [than  now  exists  in  the  air] 
would  be  injurious  to  animal  life."  * 

I  must  take  a  little  time  to  examine  this,  remember- 
ing that  even  during  the  carboniferous  era,  air  breath- 
ing and  water  breathing  animals  existed  in  abundance  ;f 
remembering  that  water  is  a  great  absorbent  of  carbonic 
acid,  and  that  "  much  more  carbonic  acid  "  than  exists 
now  in  the  atmosphere  would  kill  every  mammal,  fish, 
bird  or  salamander  on  the  earth. 

Admitting  that  every  foot  of  the  earth's  surface  sup- 
ports an  amount  of  oxygen  equal  in  weight  to  at  least 
420  pounds,  as  the  best  authorities  teach,  and  allowing 
a  cubic  foot  of  coal  to  weigh  70  pounds,  considerably  be- 
low the  average,  and  the  average  of  charcoals  as  10 

*  Read  Dana's  "  Manual "  from  page  340  to  353. 
t  See  Dawson's  "  Acadian  Geol." 


264  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

pounds  per  cubic  foot,  and  taking  the  conclusion  of 
chemists  that  a  bushel  of  charcoal  will  yield  2,500  gal- 
lons of  carbonic  acid,  we  find  one  cubic  foot  or  ten 
pounds  of  charcoal  will  yield  a  little  more  than  2,000 
gallons.  Novf  a  cubic  foot  of  coal  yields  from  40  to  60 
pounds  of  carbon;  we  will  put  the  average  at  50  pounds 
of  pure  carbon.  Then  it  is  plain  that  if  10  pounds,  or 
one  cubic  foot  of  charcoal,  or  nearly  pure  carbon,  will 
yield  2,000  gallons  of  carbonic  acid,  that  50  pounds  will 
yield  five  times  as  much,  or  ten  thousand  gallons,  and 
a  column  ten  feet  high  and  one  foot  square  will  yield 
ten  times  as  much,  or  100,000  gallons.  Then  calling 
eight  gallons  equal  to  one  cubic  foot,  it  would  make  a 
column  of  carbonic  acid  12,500  feet  high  and  one  foot 
square.  Here,  then,  is  revealed  the  astounding  fact 
that  if  all  the  coal  of  the  earth  (including  the  graphitic 
coals  of  the  archsean,  etc. )  combined  would  make  a  bed 
of  pure  carbon  10  feet  thick  around  the  earth,  it  actual- 
ly drew  from  the  atmosphere  an  ocean  of  carbonic  acid 
12,500  feet  deep  extending  around  the  entire  sphere. 
Now  if  my  hypothetic  vein  of  10  feet  be  not  an  exag- 
geration, this  is  at  least  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  the 
carboniferous  atmosphere  contained  more  than  it  now 
'does. 

According  to  Youman  there  is  enough  carbonic  acid 
in  our  atmosphere  to  make  an  ocean  only  13  feet  deep. 
And  eminent  physiologists  say  that  three  or  four  per 
cent,  of  the  present  atmosphere  in  the  shape  of  carbonic 
acid  would  be  fatal  to  life. 

But  is  my  estimate  of  the  hypothetic  coal  vein  of  10 
feet  too  high  ?  Is  there  enough  carbon  in  the  coal  beds 
to  make  a  world  stratum  ten  feet  thick?  Late  discov- 
eries of  coal  in  almost  all  lands  outside  of  the  torrid 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  265 

zone  would  induce  me  rather  to  increase  than  diminish 
the  estimate.  Taking  the  vast  coal  fields  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley,  Texas,  and  the  great  region  of  the  Cor- 
dilleras, I  presume  one-fourth  part  of  the  United  States 
is  underlain  with  coal  veins  varying  from  1  foot  to  25 
feet.  In  Pennsylvania  it  will  aggregate  over  40  feet 
in  thickness.  In  Eastern  Ohio  it  will  reach  almost  the 
same  thickness.  In  Eastern  Pennsylvania  a  single  vein, 
sometimes  attains  the  thickness  of  30  feet,  with  from 
7  to  10  massive  veins.  In  Nova  Scotia  there  are  more 
than  TO  veins;  one  of  these  is  38  feet  thick,  another  15, 
and  another  12.  In  Great  Britain  there  are  at  least 
100  coal  veins,  amounting,  it  is  said,  to  a  thickness  of 
300  feet.  In  France  are  coal  veins  100  and  120  feet 
thick.  When  we  turn  to  the  vast  coal  fields  of  Asia 
and  Southern  Africa,  South  America  and  Australia, 
Alaska  and  Greenland,  and  then  count  in  the  calcula- 
tion the  vast  beds  of  carboniferous  shales  and  oil-bear- 
ing strata  of  carboniferous  limestone,  and  remember 
that  Dr.  Dawson  has  said  that  there  is  likely  as  much 
carbon  in  the  archsean  rocks  as  in  any  subsequent  for- 
mation, and  that  these  beds  are  world-wide,  I  think  we 
need  not  diminish  our  10  foot  seam. 

But  lest  the  reader  may  think  that  I  am  claiming  too 
much  I  will  diminish  this  stratum  to  five  feet,  and  we 
will  yet  have  an  ocean  of  carbonic  anhydride  more  than 
six  thousand  feet  deep.  Or  if  I  am  compelled  to  re- 
duce it  to  one-half  this  much  we  will  have  more  than 
3,000  feet,  or  three  times  as  much  as  Youman's  four 
per  cent.,  or  two  hundred  and  forty  times  as  much  car- 
bonic acid  as  now  exists  in  the  air.  And  yet  Dana's 
fishes  and  amphibians  survived ! ! 

No  wonder  that   a  modern   chemist,   investigating 


266  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

these  measureless  carbon  beds,  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  there  is  not  enough  oxygen  in  the  air  and  crust  of 
the  earth  combined  to  saturate  the  carbon  of  the  coal 
veins  without  the  deoxidation  of  its  salts  and  ores.* 

Hence  it  is  plain  that  there  could  not  have  been  such 
an  ocean  of  plant  food.  The  existence  of  breathing 
animals  in  the  very  midst  of  the  coal-forming  period 
forbids  it:  The  simple  fact  that  at  the  very  time  the 
primitive  carbon  was  being  distilled  in  a  burning  world 
the  oxygen  under  chemical  law  had  a  choice  in  com- 
bining with  other  elements  present  in  the  great  alem- 
bic, forbids  it.  We  are,  therefore,  left  without  the 
slightest  chance  to  oppose  the  claim  that  the  primitive 
fires  in  the  molten  earth  did  produce  measureless 
quantities  of  fuel  carbon,  and  which  has  always  re- 
mained such.  Where  is  it? 

Now  as  the  formation  of  fuel  in  a  swamp  is  the  same 
as  that  in  every  fire-place,  foundry,  furnace  and  solfa- 
tara  on  earth,  and  both  secondary  processes  producing 
secondary  products,  and  as  the  latter,  as  all  must  ad- 
mit, is  utterly  powerless  to  add  materially  to  the  fuel 
forms  of  the  earth  as  coal,  so  must  the  former  be  power- 
less to  add  greatly  to  coal  formation. 

If  there  be  so  much  as  one  feature  of  the  coal  prob- 
lem which  the  primitive  carbon  theory  fails  to  explain 
after  a  fair  test,  then  it  must  be  a  failure.  It  is  then 
with  the  utmost  confidence  that  I  prepare  it,  knowing 
that  according  to  eternal  law  we  shall  find  beds  of 
primitive  fuel  carbon  in  the  earth.  I  will  now  in  as 
brief  a  manner  as  possible  specify  some  conditions  that 
must  prevail  in  the  coal  beds  as  decisive  tests: 

First:  As  the  annular  system  was  without  doubt  a 

•  Phin's  "  Six  Days  of  Creation,"  page  66. 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  267 

region  of  microscopic  life  and  infusorial  forms,  I  pre- 
sume a  coal  bed  must  be  largely  characterized  through- 
out its  mass  by  the  presence  of  microscopic  organisms. 
While  at  the  same  time,  being  a  deposit  from  sea 
waters,  it  must  have  carried  down  organic  forms  exist- 
ing in  those  waters,  and  remaining  for  a  while  lying 
upon  the  sea  bottom  before  it  became  covered  up  by 
other  beds,  it  must  have  become  as  other  oceanic  ooze, 
more  characteristically  marine  upon  its  surface  (in  ma- 
rine waters)  than  in  other  parts  of  its  bed. 

Second:  These  carbon  sediments  must  have  borne 
down  a  vast  amount  of  marine  vegetation,  and  buried 
it  upon  the  sea  bottom,  and  must  also  have  accumu- 
lated in  beds  on  the  land  surface,  but  here  only  in  the 
lowest  region — i.e.,  in  swamp  marshes — and  here  the 
involved  vegetation  would  be  different,  the  marine 
character  being  largely  absent. 

Third:  Where  a  carbon-fall  was  borne  to  the  seas, 
that  part  of  it  which  settled  where  limestone  strata  pre- 
vail would  indicate  great  distance  from  the  shore,  and 
here  the  roof  shales  of  the  coal  seams  must  be  meas- 
urably free  from  land  fossils.  While  coal  beds  among 
intercalated  sand  strata  would  indicate  deposits  nearer 
shore,  and  here  the  roof-covering  of  the  coal  beds  would 
likely  be  more  truly  mechanical  beds,  or  at  least  con- 
tain land  fossils  to  a  more  liberal  extent. 

Fourth:  As  all  downfalls  from  the  annular  system 
must  take  place  more  largely  in  regions  distant  from 
the  equator,  the  coal  beds  must  be  more  heavily  devel- 
oped toward  the  polar  regions  than  elsewhere.  Those 
located  nearest  the  poles  must  be  the  nearest  free  from 
terrestrial  or  marine  impurities,  and  yet  with  such  im- 
purities eliminated  must  be  specifically  heavier;  while 


268  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

those  floating  farthest  from  the  region  of  downfall 
toward  the  equator,  or  into  bays  and  gulfs  of  the  ocean, 
would  contain  a  greater  amount  of  impurities  or  ash, 
and  with  the  ash  eliminated  would  be  specifically 
lighter. 

Fifth :  All  carbon  downfalls  must  have  been  attended 
by  great  cataclysms  of  snow  or  water,  or  both,  and 
more  likely  than  otherwise  the  periods  of  coal  accumu- 
lations were  those  essentially  indicative  of  violence,  if 
not  of  cold. 

Sixth:  While  a  bituminous  coal  vein  deposited  in 
regions  subject  to  volcanic  strains  and  mechanical  heat 
arising  therefrom,  would  necessarily  be  metamorphosed 
into  heavier  and  harder  carbon  forms,  as  into  anthra- 
cite, etc.,  yet  as  there  must  have  been  all  the  light  and 
heavy  forms  of  carbon  in  the  annular  system,  as  primi- 
tive distillates,  it  is  certain  that  all  these  forms  of  car- 
bon may  be  found  in  lands  where  no  strata  disturbance 
has  taken  place. 

Seventh :  When  a  carbon-fall  took  place,  and  the  car- 
bon was  borne  to  the  deep  seas,  the  heavy  carbon  such 
as  the  anthracite  and  semi-bituminous  particles  would 
settle  in  the  deep  ocean,  while  the  lighter,  not  being 
able  to  reach  bottom,  would  float  to  shallower  waters 
and  settle  as  lighter  coals,  and  according  to  this  view 
a  submarine  valley  might  have  a  deposit  of  anthracite 
carbon,  while  a  neighboring  bed  on  an  elevation  might 
be  a  bituminous  deposit. 

Eighth:  These  facts  must  lead  us  to  the  inevitable 
conclusion  that  in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Hemispheres  the  coals  must  be  more  valuable  as  we 
proceed  from  the  equator  and  the  least  valuable  coals 
must,  as  a  rule,  be  nearest  the  equator,  and  also  in 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  269 

smaller  quantities.  I  will  offer  this  as  a  decisive  test,  if 
the  reader  choose. 

Ninth :  As  there  must  have  been  carbon  disseminated 
throughout  the  annular  system  there  must  have  been 
carbon-falls  in  all  ages!  And  the  earliest  falls  neces- 
sarily the  heaviest  and  purest,  and  the  last  falls  of  car- 
bon must  have  been  the  lightest  and  of  the  poorest 
quality;  and  if  any  downfalls  from  the  annular  system 
have  occurred  in  recent  times  then  this  light  carbon 
must  be  found  on  the  very  surface  of  the  earth,  and  im- 
bedded in  the  snows  that  fell  with  them  in  the  polar 
regions,  and  must  also  form  the  foundation  of  recent 
peat  formations  in  cooler  regions. 

Now  some  of  these  points  I  have  not  had  time  or 
opportunity  to  investigate  fully.  But  I  propose  them 
with  the  utmost  confidence,  for  all  must  see  that  they 
are  legitimate  conclusions,  and  men  of  science  can  by 
these  confirm  the  theory  or  hurl  them  with  deadly  effect 
against  it  if  they  are  not  true.  They  are  all  important 
and  decisive  tests.  The  ninth  or  last  embraces  a  vol- 
ume in  itself,  and  I  regret  that  I  have  so  little  space 
in  this  to  consider  it.  I  have  elsewhere  referred  to 
the  vast  reaches  of  carbonite  spread  over  so  much  of 
the  Northern  Hemisphere,  but  it  is  important  that  the 
peat  bog  question  should  be  settled  before  we  venture 
far  into  the  coal  problem.  We  will  attempt  to  settle 
it  now. 

Why  is  this  carbonite  covering  confined  so  exclu- 
sively to  regions  glaciated  and  submerged  during  the 
last  reign  of  ice  and  flood  ?  To  go  back  a  little  in  or- 
der of  time,  why  are  the  terraces  that  were  built  up  by 
the  flood-waters  of  the  retiring  glaciers  in  the  ungla- 
ciated  valleys  so  frequently  characterized  by  the  pres- 


270  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ence  of  carbonite  called  "  peat,"  "  lignite/'  etc.  ?  Is 
it  not  a  demonstrable  fact,  for  instance,  that  the  great 
terrace  beds  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers  were 
carried  by  floods  from  the  glaciated  regions  of  the  Great 
Central  Basin?  And  are  we  not  compelled  to  admit 
that  the  so-called  lignite  seams  or  peat  bands  in  those 
terraces  were  also  borne  from  the  same  basin  ?  Then 
they  must  have  come  from  the  melting  glaciers  or  fund 
of  snows!  These  carbonite  streaks,  plainly  visible  in 
the  Mississippi  embankments  from  Vicksburg  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  planted  deeply  beneath  the 
waters  of  the  lower  Mississippi  at  New  Orleans,  were 
formed  as  the  flood  deposits  were  formed,  and  must 
have  been  borne  by  the  same  waters  that  carried  the 
body  of  the  terraces  themselves. 

I  have  shown  how  this  vast  spread  of  carbonite  was 
the  result  of  the  last  great  debacle  of  snow  and  floods. 
It  is  evident  that  if  this  black  carbonaceous  deposit 
were  covered  up,  as  the  lignites  and  peat  of  the  valleys 
of  Europe,  Asia  and  America  are,  it  would  be  called 
lignite  or  peat,  and  no  man  would  question  the  infer- 
ence. But  it  does  lie  at  the  bottom  of  thousands  of 
lakes  and  ponds.  It  has  been  dredged  from  the  waters 
of  the  northern  oceans,  and  the  dredge  will  surely  bring 
it  from  the  Great  Lakes,  from  Hudson  Bay,  and  from 
the  Arctic  Ocean. 

But  in  thousands,  nay,  millions  of  these  ponds  and 
swamps  grows  a  so-called  peat  vegetation.  And  this  is 
the  question  we  must  now  endeavor  to  solve.  Peat- 
bog vegetation  or  moss,  known  by  the  generic  name  of 
Sphagnum,  is  characteristic  of  the  swamp,  and  grows 
only  where  peat  is  forming — a  circumstance  which 
alone  should  teach  us  to  look  back  bevond  the  era  of 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  271 

vegetation  for  its  origin.  It  is  plain  that  if  no  peat 
(carbonite)  had  originally  and  previously  been  de- 
posited where  the  plant  now  grows,  it  would  never  have 
grown  there.  As  the  millepore  and  its  kindred  organ- 
isms would  never  have  lived  and  flourished  in  the  seas 
if  lime  had  not  previously  existed  there  as  the  food,  so 
neither  could  any  of  the  sphagnous  mosses  have  planted 
themselves  over  the  medial  and  colder  latitudes  of  the 
earth,  if  the  carbon  beds  necessary  to  sustain  them  had 
not  been  previously  planted  there.  As  we  are  forced 
to  look  beyond  the  era  of  oceanic  organisms  into  the 
annular  system  for  a  primitive  supply  of  lime,  so  we 
must  also  look  beyond  the  plant  through  the  igneous 
and  smoking  world  into  the  earth's  primitive  envelope 
for  the  food  that  called  the  peat  vegetation  into  exist- 
ence. 

Now  as  we  simply  know  that  unconsumed  carbon  did 
exist  in  the  annular  system,  and  that  its  lightest  forms 
were  the  last  to  descend  upon  the  earth,  not  in  the  equa- 
torial regions,  but  nearer  the  polar  world,  and  since  we 
find  such  an  enormous  outspread  of  such  carbon  not  in 
the  tropics  but  in  the  colder  regions,  accompanied  by 
the  plant  demanded  by  its  existence,  how  can  we  avoid 
the  philosophic  conclusiou  that  if  there  had  not  been  a 
downfall  of  carbonite  in  the  very  last  geological  epoch, 
the  sphagnous  vegetation  would  not  now  exist  there? 

As  the  marine  organisms  came  into  existence  after 
their  food  was  supplied  to  the  seas,  and  began  their  sub- 
sequent work  of  rock  making,  and  are  thus  employed 
to-day,  so  the  peat  vegetation  came  and  began  its  offices 
of  peat  making  after  its  food  was  supplied,  and  is  thus 
employed  to-day.  Then  it  must  be  apparent  to  every 
man  of  reason  that  peat  vegetation  now  forming  a  sec- 


272  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ondary  product  of  carbon  is  our  first  and  unimpeachable 
witness  of  the  primitive  and  annular  origin  of  coal. 
There  is  no  reason  why  peat  vegetation  should  not  grow 
more  abundantly  in  the  tropics  than  in  colder  regions, 
if  the  carbonite  or  sphagnum  food  existed  there.  There 
is  every  reason  for  believing  that  if  coal  is  a  vegetable 
product  it  should  more  abundantly  exist  in  the  equa- 
torial regions.  Does  not  the  vegetation  theory  demand 
this?  Why,  then,  are  the  great  carbon  formations 
planted  where  the  annular  theory  demands  that  they 
should  be  found,  and  not  where  the  vegetarian  wants  to 
find  them  ?  Is  it  not  plain  that  if  such  beds  of  coal  ex- 
isted under  the  equator  as  are  found  in  zones  of  eternal 
ice,  that  our  theory  could  not  be  supported  thereby? 
The  presence  of  every  coal  bed  in  the  polar  world  is 
an  eloquent  testimony  against  the  current  theory.  The 
coal  was  planted  where  it  affords  the  vegetarian  no  con- 
eolation.  But  with  what  an  air  of  triumph  could  he 
point  to  it,  if  it  were  planted  within  the  tropics,  the 
very  home  of  vegetation ! 

If  we  could  by  any  means  change  the  character  of 
the  bed  of  peat,  the  vegetation  would  languish  and  die, 
and  another  species  of  peat  plant  would  succeed.  This 
is  abundantly  proven  by  the  fact  that  where  lime 
waters  or  marine  waters  saturate  the  peat-bed,  other 
species  of  sphagnum  flourish  and  form  other  kinds  of 
carbon.  Thus  we  see  that  law  leads  us  directly  away 
from  the  current  theory.  The  law  that  guides  the 
acaleph  of  the  sea  guides  the  sphagnum  of  the  bog. 
Each  had  its  food  supplied  before  it  flourished  in  its  own 
habitat.  Each  is  to-day  continuing  the  process  of 
strata-building.  But  we  must  call  it  a  secondary  and 


Fig.  11.    JUPITER.     (RINGS  FALLEN.) 

Jupiter,  the  King  of  Planets,  is  very  likely  an  inhabited  world. 
But  what  must  be  the  canopy  forms  that  are  to-day  directing 
thought  and  intellect  on  such  a  world?  The  face  of  Jupiter  here 
presented  was  seen  several  years  ago,  but  here  are  some  forms 
that  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize  in  the  legendary  annals  of  earth. 
J  can  only  allude  to  Leda  and  the  egg,  which,  under  the  power  of 
Jove,  the  true  sky,  brought  forth  the  "twins,"  day  and  night 
(Castor  and  Pollux),  a  problem  that  Max  Miiller  well-nigh  solved. 


Consideration  of  the  Evidence.  273 

puny  work,  indeed,  compared  with  the  original  and 
primitive  one. 

If  a  colony  of  ants  build  a  mound  a  foot  high,  must 
we  conclude  that  Mont  Blanc  is  an  ant  hill  ? 

If  the  hickory,  the  ash,  the  pine  and  the  lycopod 
must  each  have  its  peculiar  foundation  soil,  previously 
laid  down,  before  it  can  take  root  and  flourish,  so  must 
the  sphagnum  and  the  hypnum  of  the  marsh.  The 
pipsissiwa  must  have  its  shade ;  the  epiphegus  must  have 
its  beech  tree,  or  it  will  not  grow,  and  the  bog  moss 
must  have  its  carbon  bed  as  surely  as  it  must  have  its 
air  before  it  could  begin  its  offices.  And  further,  the 
succession  of  species  and  tribes  of  plants  in  the  geologic 
ages  as  clearly  demands  a  succession  of  downfalls  of  an- 
nular matter  as  the  other  witness  in  the  record. 

Having  then,  as  I  think,  planted  the  primitive  car- 
bon problem  upon  the  rock  of  philosophic  law,  or  rather 
having  found  it  planted  thereon,  we  will  next  examine 
the  ipse  dixit  of  the  coal  beds  themselves,  and  note  the 
inevitable  harmony. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

IS  COAL  A  VEGETABLE  PRODUCT? 


AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE  COAL  BEDS  UNDEB  THE  LIGHT 
OF  THE  ANNULAR  THEOEY. 

The  accepted  theory  of  the  origin  and  formation  of 
coal  is  simply  this :  It  was  formed  of  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  vegetation  that  grew  largely  in  peat  and  swamp 
marshes.  The  adoption  of  this  view  has  led  to  the 
inevitable  conclusion :  1st.  That  coal  is  vegetable  car- 
bon changed  to  a  hydro-carbon,  and  subsequently  par- 
tially changed  to  an  oxidized  hydro-carbon.  2d.  Each 
coal  seam,  however  vast  and  boundless  its  extent,  was 
universally  submerged  beneath  the  sea  to  receive  its 
superposed  beds  of  sand,  clay  and  lime,  and  afterwards 
re-elevated  essentially  to  the  ocean's  level  to  receive  the 
next  coal  seam  placed  above  it. 

These  points  so  warmly  maintained  by  the  great  fra- 
ternity of  geologists  we  will  now  examine  by  the  pierc- 
ing light  of  philosophy. 

First  let  us  remember  that  every  atom  of  the  great 
mass  of  carbon  now  forming  the  coal  deposits  of  the 
world  must  have  been  a  distilled  product  of  a  primi- 
tive igneous  process,  even  before  the  plant  could  pos- 
sibly appropriate  it;  and  that  we  are  forced  to  admit 
that  this  primitive  and  original  process,  which  took 
place  long  ages  before  a  plant  ever  existed,  must  have 
supplied  the  very  same  chemical  products  now  found  in 
the  coal  beds. 

Every    philosophic    chemist    is    thus    unavoidably 


7s  Cod  a  Vegetable  Product?  275 

bound  to  the  conclusion  that  a  process  a  thousand-fold 
more  stupendous  and  competent  to  produce  all  the 
forms  of  carbon  now  found  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  ex- 
isted in  the  great  telluric  gas  furnace  of  primitive 
times. 

Let  us  imagine  two  worlds,  one  covered  with  a  swamp 
vegetation,  amid  which  a  slow  and  puny  distillation  is 
giving  rise  to  the  accumulation  of  carbon  fuel;  the 
other  a  boiling,  burning  and  smoking  planet,  distilling 
and  subliming  from  millions  of  furnaces  carbon  in  all  its 
forms.  Which  of  these  imaginary  worlds  would  form 
fuel  carbon  more  rapidly  ?  Which  would,  for  the  time 
occupied  and  the  means  employed,  be  the  more  compe- 
tent agent  in  the  grand  process  of  strata-building?  If, 
in  the  primitive  world-furnace,  the  unconsumed  carbon 
fuel  should  form  in  the  least  degree,  it  would  return 
in  after-times,  with  its  aqueous  and  other  matter;  and 
the  mind  is  utterly  at  a  loss  to  find  figures  wherewith 
to  multiply  the  vegetative  process  to  make  it  at  all  com- 
parable with  the  igneous. 

On  the  other  hand  we  see  the  great  gas  retort  of  the 
molten  earth,  distilling  every  carbon  product,  from  the 
heavy  graphite  of  the  archsean  rocks  to  the  light  car- 
bonite  of  recent  times,  and  we  know  this  process  did  ob- 
tain, if  the  earth  ever  was  in  a  molten  state.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  process  which  we  know  could  never,  and 
would  never  have  obtained,  if  the  foundation  had  not 
been  precisely  laid  and  the  food  elements  previously 
supplied  by  the  former.  On  the  one  hand  we  see  a 
process  commensurate  with  creative  effort;  on  the 
other,  a  process  belonging  to  a  world  in  its  complete- 
ness. On  one  hand,  we  see,  in  short,  a  fuel  carbon 
formed  in  immeasurable  quantities,  gathered  from  the 


276  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

only  possible  terrestrial  source,  and  stored  away  as  an 
aqueous  sediment  in  the  earth's  crust ;  on  the  other,  we 
see  this  ready-formed  carbon  as  a  fuel,  etc.,  entirely 
ignored  and  disregarded  in  spite  of  law,  and  made  by 
some  mysterious  process  into  plant  food, — an  invisible 
gas;  a  non-supporter  of  animal  life;  a  non-supporter  of 
combustion, — and  again  transformed  into  a  solid  car- 
bon, and  then  by  a  secondary  combustion  transformed 
accidentally  into  a  fuel  oxyhydro-carbon,  the  very  same 
thing  previously  formed.  Looking  back  upon  these 
hypothetic  worlds  as  we  start  upon  our  tour  of  investi- 
gation, who  will  not  say  that  the  primitive  carbon 
theory  has  a  foundation  a  thousand  times  more  per- 
manently planted  ?  Why  force  the  puny  process  of 
peat  formation  to  supply  carbon  already  on  hand? 
These  questions  must  address  themselves  to  our  notice 
in  every  step  of  our  progress.  Previous  chapters  have 
so  fully  established  the  fact  that  there  was  an  annular 
system,  which  in  part  remained  on  high  till  man  came 
upon  earth,  that  all  we  now  need  to  do  will  be  to  show 
more  clearly  that  that  system  was  filled,  as  it  were,  with 
unconsumed  carbon. 

I  suppose  there  is  no  man  of  reason  who  will  upon 
mature  reflection  deny  that  the  earth  was  once  in  a 
fiery  molten  condition.  But  if  the  earth  ever  was  in 
a  molten  condition,  can  we  possibly  avoid  the  conclu- 
sion that  it  was  a  smoking  world  ?  Suppose  this  earth, 
or  any  orb  constituted  as  this  is,  should  be  by  some 
means  suddenly  changed  into  an  igneous  or  glowing 
sphere.  That  the  immensity  of  carbon  contained  in  its 
rocky  frame  would  be  under  such  conditions  driven  out- 
ward in  the  form  of  smoke,  or  unconsumed  carbon,  will 
not  be  questioned  by  the  philosophic  student.  And  is  it 


7s  Cod  a  Vegetable  Product?  277 

not  an  axiomatic  fact  that  that  ocean  of  expelled  carbon 
would  possess  all  allotropic  forms  of  that  element  from 
the  heaviest  to  the  lightest?  Is  it  not  an  axiomatic 
fact  that  these  forms  of  carbon  would,  to  a  great  extent, 
arrange  themselves  in  that  ocean  of  vapors  in  positions 
determined  by  their  specific  gravities  the  heaviest  near- 
est the  earth  ?  My  readers  certainly  would  not  require 
me  to  supply  witnesses  to  prove  these  things, — ques- 
tions so  evidently  true  that  no  further  evidence  can  add 
to  their  force. 

Hence,  it  is  a  conclusion  to  which  we  are  all  com- 
pelled to  assent  that  the  primitive  atmosphere  waa 
largely  an  ocean  of  distilled  carbon;  and  as  we  know 
that  nearly  all  unconsumed  carbon  arising  from  every 
furnace  is  a  fuel  (since  it  unites  with  oxygen  and  dis- 
appears), we  know  that  that  primitive  carbon  in  some 
of  its  forms  was  also  a  fuel.  And  as  we  know  (as  any 
one  can  prove  by  experiment)  that  carbon  particles  or 
atoms  in  their  nascent  state  rising  among  aqueous  vapors 
will  decompose  them  and  unite  with  their  oxygen  form- 
ing an  invisible  gas,  and  also  with  their  hydrogen  form- 
ing a  hydro-carbon,*  then  we  also  know  that  the  primi- 
tive atmosphere  contained  a  fund  of  fuel  hydro-carbon. 
Soot  is  deposited  in  infinitesimal  smoke  particles. 
Hence  we  know  that  smoke  from  burning  carbon  is  sim- 
ply a  fuel.  And  we  are  thus,  by  the  inexorable  demands 
of  law,  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  the  smoke  that  arose 
from  the  igneous  earth  was  a  fuel  hydro-carbon;  and 
further,  that  when  the  primitive  vapors,  segregated 
and  aggregated  into  an  annular  system,  these  forms  of 
carbon  were  present  in  that  system,  and  also  that  when 

*  Even  soot,  placed  away  in  a  vessel  of  water,  will  in  time 
decompose  the  latter,  appropriating  its  oxygen  and  a  small  part 
of  its  hydrogen. 


278  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  same  rings  declined  from  the  annular  form  into  ter- 
restrial belts,  this  same  carbon  was  present,  over- 
canopying  the  earth  on  its  way  to  its  surface,  near  the 
poles,  or  at  least  beyond  the  temperate  zones. 

Now  when  we  turn  our  eyes  to  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
and  see  their  dark  belts  in  perpetual  motion  inter  se, 
and  can  find  nothing  in  the  whole  laboratory  of  nature 
competent  to  produce  such  belts,  except  carbon,  and 
know  from  analogy  that  these  planets  also  have  been 
burning  and  smoking  worlds,  we  simply  see  the  Jovian 
and  Saturnian  carboniferous  strata  revolving  as  annu- 
lar matter;  and  the  process  of  primitive  carbon  distilla- 
tion becomes  a  universal  one  in  the  economy  of  world- 
making. 

There  is  yet  another  feature  to  be  examined  before 
we  are  quite  ready  to  examine  the  coal  beds.  I  pre- 
sume that  every  one  of  my  readers  can  see  that  if  the 
condition  of  the  primitive  or  annular  carbon  be  true, 
as  here  predicated,  the  annular  theory  is  being  nar- 
rowed down  to  a  few  decisive  tests.  It  must  be  seen 
that  if  the  annular  matter  arranged  itself  in  the  sys- 
tem according  to  its  specific  gravity,  then  the  heaviest 
forms  of  carbon  such  as  graphite  were  located  nearest 
the  earth,  and  therefore  fell  to  it  long  before  the 
lighter  forms.  Now,  this  being  the  case,  where  must 
we  find  this  heavy  carbon?  Certainly  in  the  first- 
formed  aqueous  beds.  That  is,  if  the  annular  theory 
be  true  there  must  be  found  in  the  archaean  beds  vast 
quantities  of  carbon  of  the  greatest  specific  gravity. 
Now  this  carbon  having  fallen  directly  after  the  igneous 
era  closed,  must  be  found  unassociated  with  fossil  vege- 
tation. And  if  thus  found,  it  becomes  absolute  proof 
that  carbon,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  geologists,  was 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  279 

formed  without  the  aid  of  vegetation,  and  consequently 
supplied  directly  by  the  primitive  process  in  the  igneous 
earth.  Now  let  us  hunt  this  primitive  carbon  to  its 
hiding  place.  If  we  cannot  find  it,  the  annular  theory 
is  a  failure.  If  we  do  find  it,  it  is  once  more  trium- 
phant; and  if  found  unattended  by  a  fossilized  vegeta- 
tion, the  theory  will  again  be  vindicated. 

At  this  stage  of  the  argument,  then,  it  is  with  de- 
light that  I  turn  to  the  highest  of  human  authority,  and 
find  the  wished-for  carbon  away  down  amid  the  primi- 
tive piles  of  aqueous  beds.  Dana  tells  us  graphite,  a 
form  of  carbon,  is  "  very  common  material  "*  in  the 
oldest  beds.  Prof.  Dawson  claims  that  "  the  quantity  of 
carbon  in  the  laurentian  [oldest  beds]  is  equal  to  that  in 
similar  areas  of  the  carboniferous  system."!  It  is 
mined  for  graphite  in  many  parts  of  both  hemispheres, 
and  sometimes  occurs  in  massive  beds;  sometimes 
forming  from  20  to  30  per  cent,  of  the  laurentian  lime- 
beds.  It  is  an  important  constituent  of  some  of  the 
iron  strata  of  the  archsean  of  the  old  world.  Some 
of  the  purest  and  best  deposits  are  found  in  the  archaean 
of  New  England.  That  is,  enough  is  known  of  these 
oldest  beds  to  establish  beyond  a  doubt  the  claim  that 
they  contain  the  very  material  we  are  in  search  of  to 
vindicate  our  theory.  And  as  we  have  previously 
shown  that  these  heavy  mineral  and  metallic  beds  were 
largely  an  annular  product  the  presence  of  heavy  car- 
bon in  some  only  adds  strength  and  philosophic  value 
to  the  claim. 

But  where  are  the  evidences  of  vegetable  life? 
Where  can  we  find  a  fossil  bud,  leaf  or  stem?  For 

*  "  Manual,"  page   152. 
t  Ibid.,  page  157. 


280  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

fifty  years  an  army  of  geologists  with  eyes  open  and 
keen  as  the  eagle's,  has  explored  the  archsean  world 
in  vain  for  a  satisfactory  trace  of  a  vegetable.  Can  it 
be  possible  that  plants  grew  on  the  old  world  shores 
without  leaving  a  trace?  Why  did  the  delicate  forms 
of  the  eozob'n  leave  their  impress  on  the  imperishable 
granite  without  a  trace  of  a  plant  ?  Simply  because  no 
plants  were  there !  Then  how  are  we  to  avoid  the  con- 
clusion that  amid  the  oldest  sedimentary  beds  are  vast 
deposits  of  carbon  in  whose  formation  the  plant  never 
took  a  part  ?  Dana  says  emphatically  "  no  distinct  re- 
mains of  plants  have  been  observed  "  in  these  ancient 
beds;  and  as  the  carbon  beds  themselves  are  the  only 
evidence  found,  and  these  no  evidences  at  all,  where  is 
the  hope  of  the  vegetarian  ? 

All  geologists  admit  that  if  coal  be  a  vegetable  pro- 
duct graphite  must  also  have  had  a  vegetable  origin; 
compromising  only  so  far  as  to  admit  that  animal  or- 
ganisms may  have  aided  in  the  process,  which  of  course 
only  adds  to  the  difficulty,  since  it  is  carbon  that  makes 
the  organism,  not  the  organism  the  carbon.  Here, 
then,  is  a  problem  which  the  vegetarian  can  neither  cir- 
cumvent nor  climb  over  without  the  aid  of  the  annular 
theory.  The  foundation  stone  upon  which  the  vege- 
tation theory  stands  has  vanished  in  primitive  fire,  and 
the  whole  edifice  tumbles  into  a  mighty  mass  of  ruins. 
Here  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  the  graphite  is  a 
primitive  carbon;  that  carbon  did  exist,  and  was  placed 
as  a  sedimentary  bed  in  the  earth  before  a  plant  ever 
grew  upon  its  surface.  Hence  the  plant  did  not  form 
the  carbon,  but  the  carbon  formed  the  plant.  Upon 
this  eternal  plan  the  world  was  built.  From  the  car- 
bon beds  locked  amid  the  metallic  and  granite  sills  of 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  281 

the  earth's  crust  to  the  peat  swamp  of  the  present  day, 
carbon  has  been  king,  and  the  plant  its  pliant  product. 
But  suppose  an  abundant  vegetation  did  exist  in 
archaean  times,  could  it  in  the  least  invalidate  the 
philosophic  claim  that  graphite  found  in  the  lauren- 
tian  beds  was  derived  from  the  great  telluric  furnace  ? 
Inexorable  law  demands  that  graphite  carbon  must  be 
found  in  the  oldest  sedimentary  rocks.  There  it  is. 
It  also  demands  that  it  must  there  be  found  as  an  ig- 
neous product.  The  entire  absence  of  organic  fossils 
asserts  that  it  is  an  igneous  product.  Now  suppose 
in  the  coming  centuries,  some  leaves,  some  stems  or 
other  forms  of  vegetation  should  be  found  in  graphite; 
these  would,  according  to  law,  become  graphitic,  mere- 
ly because  they  were  imbedded  in  graphite,  for  the 
same  reason  that  if  the  plant  form  had  fallen  in  a  sand 
bed  it  would  have  been  a  silicious  fossil.  This  law 
must  hold  good  at  all  times.  Now  if  men  should  find 
abundant  vegetable  fossils  in  graphite  it  is  simply 
ridiculous  to  argue  from  this  fact  alone  that  graphite  is 
of  vegetable  origin.  There  is  an  abundance  of  vege- 
table fossils  in  clay  beds,  and  in  sand  beds,  etc.,  but  who 
would  claim  from  this  fact  alone  that  the  clay  bed  or 
the  sand  bed  in  which  they  are  found  is  of  vegetable 
origin  ?  The  simple  fact  that  organic  fossils  are  found 
in  carbon  beds,  and  changed  to  carbon,  affords  no  evi- 
dence at  all  that  those  organisms  made  the  bed.  They 
are  simply  carbon  fossils  because  they  were  imbedded  in 
a  carbon  stratum,  for  the  same  reason  that  fossils 
found  in  a  lime  bed  are  calcareous  fossils.  Human  re- 
mains have  been  found  in  calcareous  formation,  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  limestone  is  of  human  origin.  And 
yet  in  defiance  of  this  very  law,  regulating  the  fossiliza- 


The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

tion  of  organic  forms,  men  claim  that  the  carbon  strata 
of  all  ages  are  of  vegetable  origin  because  vegetable  fos- 
sils are  found  in  some  of  them.  Thus  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  he  who  claims  that  the  graphite  of  the  arch- 
aean  strata  is  of  vegetable  origin  advocates  the  miracu- 
lous suspension  of  natural  law;  first,  because  there  was 
no  vegetation  existing  at  that  time,*  and  second,  be- 
cause the  law  requires  the  existence  of  carbon  in  those 
strata  that  is  not  of  vegetable  origin. 

The  reader  can  now  judge  for  himself  which  theory 
is  supported  by  the  facts.  He  can  also  see  that  the 
vegetation  theory  is  mortally  weakened  by  the  simple 
fact  that  the  earliest  carbon  beds  cannot  by  any  possi- 
bility be  of  vegetable  origin. 

Men  may  call  the  non-existence  of  vegetation  a  nega- 
tive evidence;  but  since  its  existence  is  no  evidence, 
either  positive  or  negative,  that  the  bed  is  a  vegetable 
product,  of  what  value  is  it  to  vegetarians?  Even  as 
we  enter  upon  paleozoic  time  we  look  in  vain  for  any 
forms  of  vegetation,  but  the  very  lowest  cryptogamic 
species,  and  these  in  very  scanty  exhibits,  and  also 
marine  in  habit. 

Now  as  graphite  is  not  a  vegetable  product,  it  is  very 
probable  that  other  forms  of  carbon,  as  bituminous  and 
anthracite  coals,  are  not.  Considering  that  we  must 
reverse  the  law  of  fossilization  in  order  to  conceive  of 
any  stratum  itself  made  out  of  the  fossils  it  contains,  it 
is  scarcely  possible  that  a  coal  stratum  can  be  a  vege- 
table product. 

*  Dana  only  echoes  the  universal  opinion  of  geologists  when  he 
says:  "No  distinct  remains  of  plants  have  been  observed"  in  the 
archaean  rocks,  and  as  even  in  the  huronian  no  satisfactory 
traces  of  plants  have  been  found,  we  are  safe  in  the  claim  that 
there  are  no  plant  remains  in  or  among  the  graphite  beds. 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  283 

We  find  vegetable  remains  in  coal  seams  just  as  we 
find  them  in  any  other  rock.  Sometimes  a  coal-plant, 
as  a  lepidodendron,  planted  in  the  under-clay  rises 
through  the  coal  bed  and  extends  into  the  overlying 
shale  and  sandstone.  But  here  we  find  it  a  clay  fossil 
in  the  under-clay,  a  carbonaceous  fossil  in  the  coal  bed, 
a  silicious  fossil  in  the  sandstone;  that  is,  if  it  has  at  all 
become  mineralized.  Now  the  very  presence  of  an 
upright  stem,  or  a  trunk  of  a  tree,  in  such  beds  is  proof 
positive  of  the  rapid  accumulation  of  the  beds  around 
it.  A  tree  standing  while  5  feet  of  vegetable  carbon  ac- 
cumulated around  it  indicates  a  fall  and  accumulation 
of  40  feet  of  vegetable  debris.  Can  it  be  possible  that  a 
tree  would  continue  to  grow  in  a  swamp  or  marsh  while 
the  growth  of  vegetable  matter  sufficient  to  make  a  bed 
of  40  feet  in  thickness  is  deposited  at  its  base,  and  then 
continue  to  stand  till  massive  beds  of  sand  and  clay  are 
deposited  upon  the  layer  of  carbon,  according  to  the 
usual  slow  process  of  strata-building?  On  the  suppo- 
sition that  such  accumulations  are  deposited,  as  they 
now  are,  we  are  forced  to  face  the  miraculous.  On  the 
supposition  that  the  carbon  fell  from  the  annular  sys- 
tem we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  a  bed  of  carbon 
five  feet  in  thickness  might  accumulate  in  a  few  months; 
nay,  it  might  be  in  a  few  days. 

There  is  one  important  feature  that  has  been  greatly 
misapprehended  by  geologists  in  considering  the  coal 
question.  It  is  a  fact  easily  demonstrated  that  the 
vegetable  carbon  in  the  coal  beds  is  generally  not 
bituminous  even  in  a  bituminous  bed.  We  often  find 
a  thin  layer  of  vegetable  carbon  in  the  solid  coal.  It 
is  an  accumulation  of  vegetable  debris  carbonized. 
Any  one  who  will  take  the  pains  to  collect  this  vege- 


284  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

table  matter  can  readily  satisfy  himself  that  it  is  scarce- 
ly combustible.  If  a  plant  should  fall  in  a  bed  of  car- 
bon, and  afterward,  by  the  aid  of  pressure  and  heat, 
become  saturated  with  oil,  or  bitumen,  it  would  thus  be 
made  combustible;  but  nine  times  out  of  ten  the  true 
vegetable  matter  found  imbedded  in  coal  burns  with 
difficulty.  Such  is  also  the  case  with  true  lignites  and 
vegetable  peat.  Now  this  could  not  be  the  case  if  the 
coal  beds  were  made  of  vegetable  carbon ;  for  the  abun- 
dance of  bitumen  in  the  oily  coals  necessitates  that  the 
vegetation  should  contain  the  elements  of  the  same. 
And  if  the  coal  plants  contained  a  resinous  eap,  as  is 
now  claimed  by  some  scientists,  even  the  vegetable  char- 
coal would  be  bituminous.  Thus  the  very  fossil  vege- 
tation speaks  plainly  in  opposition  to  the  vegetable 
origin  of  coal.  Now  why  is  it  the  very  plants  which 
geologists  claim  are  necessary  for  the  formation  of  a  bed 
of  coal,  when  gathered  from  the  body  of  the  coal,  will 
scarcely  burn  if  these  plants  formed  both  the  body  of 
the  coal  and  the  bitumen  or  oily  matter  which  exists  as 
an  essential  part  of  it?  The  conclusion,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  inevitable  that  the  vegetation  found  in  coal  is  to  a 
great  extent  foreign  matter,  just  as  the  ferns  so  abund- 
ant in  the  clays  over  the  coal  are  foreign  to  the  clay- 
beds, — i.  e.,  simply  an  involved  vegetation.  The  fact 
that  coal  has  been  considered  a  vegetable  product,  and 
the  statement  that  vegetation  is  found  in  coal  are  so 
misleading  that  the  common  reader  has  the  impression 
that  plants  and  the  remains  of  plants  -are  found  in 
abundance  in  a  coal  seam,  while  the  fact  is  that  -in  many 
coal  veins  there  is  a  paucity  of  vegetable  matter  ob- 
servable by  the  naked  eye,  and  in  some  coal  veins  it  is 
almost  entirely  absent.  For  one  visible  plant  impres- 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  285 

sion  in  the  coal  itself  there  are  ten  in  the  roof  of  the 
coal.  Did  this  great  abundance  of  vegetation  give  rise 
to  the  clay  beds  and  shales  composing  the  roof?  They 
are  clay  fossils  because  they  were  imbedded  in  clay,  as 
the  fossils  in  coal  are  carbon  because  they  were  im- 
bedded in  carbon.  And  the  simple  fact  that  there  are 
fewer  fossil  remains  in  some  coal  than  in  the  superim- 
posed beds,  shows  that  the  carbon  occupied  less  time  in 
collecting  and  forming  into  a  bed. 

Again,  it  is  claimed  that  the  original  form  of  coal  is 
that  of  ordinary  peat,  now  accumulating  in  peat  bogs 
and  marshes.  I  have  given  no  little  attention  to  the 
formation  and  nature  of  peat  beds  in  a  former  chapter, 
but  I  wish  to  say  in  this  connection  that  if  peat  were 
compressed  as  coal  has  been  the  delicate  lamination  so 
prevalent  in  coal  would  not  exist.  I  have  frequently 
counted  a  dozen  or  more  leaves  or  laminae  in  one  ver- 
tical inch  of  coal;  sometimes  these  are  not  thicker  than 
brown  paper.  And  in  the  examination  microscopically 
of  a  vertical  section  of  coal  no  fibers  can  be  seen  run- 
ning through  the  mass,  as  would  be  the  case  if  coal  were 
compressed  peat. 

A  mass  of  peat  has  been  compressed  with  a  force  of 
20  tons  to  the  square  inch,  and  yet  the  vertical  structure 
of  the  mass  was  apparent.  Now  it  matters  not,  I  pre- 
sume, what  amount  of  pressure  is  employed;  it  cannot 
make  the  fibers,  roots,  carbonized  twigs,  leaves  and 
stems  that  are  well  known  to  "  run  up  and  down  "  in 
a  mass  of  peat  to  change  their  position,  and  lie  horizon- 
tally as  they  do  in  a  coal  bed.  And  this  would  be  the 
more  evident  as  the  mass  of  coal  was  the  more  exten- 
sive. Now  lest  some  of  my  readers  think  I  press  this 
view  too  strongly,  I  will  call  their  attention  to  Dana's 


286  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

description  of  peat,*  who  says  it  is  "  commonly  pene- 
trated by  rootlets."  Will  some  one  tell  us  what  amount 
of  pressure  is  required  to  make  all  these  rootlets  lie  hor- 
izontally in  the  coal?  It  is  very  rarely  that  we  find  any 
roots  and  rootlets  in  any  position  in  the  coal  itself,  and 
they  are  much  more  rarely  found  running  vertically  or 
across  the  laminations. 

Since  we  find  an  abundance  of  rootlets  in  the  under- 
clays  of  coal,  running  in  all  directions,  vertically  as  well 
as  horizontally,  it  seems  conclusive  that  coal  is  not 
metamorphosed  peat.  Now  imagine  a  world  filled  with 
marshes  and  peat  beds;  not  like  the  thousands  of  peat 
bogs  that  are  found  on  every  continent,  but  great  con- 
tinental coal  marshes  10,000  or  100,000  square  miles  in 
extent.  Imagine  these  marshes  but  little  or  any  above 
the  sea  level,  and  covered  with  calamites,  ferns,  sigil- 
laria  and  lepidodendra, — plants  of  the  carboniferous 
era, — and  after  remaining  for  countless  centuries  as  a 
motionless  continent,  to  suddenly  sink  beneath  the 
waves  of  the  sea,  in  order  to  receive  a  sea-formed  bed 
for  a  covering;  and  in  this  universal  burial  to  preserve 
but  a  paucity  of  vegetable  fossils,  and  these  mostly  in 
horizontal  laminations, — while  in  the  clays  imme- 
diately under  as  well  in  those  immediately  above  the 
coal  to  be  a  profusion  of  fossilized  vegetation.  This  is 
the  character  of  some  of  the  coal  formations. 

Now  in  order  that  a  second  coal  seam  should  be 
formed  after  20,  50  or  a  100  feet  of  clay,  sand  and  lime 
has  accumulated  over  the  buried  carbon  bed,  this  great 
expanse  must  arise  just  as  high  above  the  waves  as  it 
stood  for  the  first  vegetation.  If  the  accumulated  sand 
was  20  feet,  then  the  first  formed  coal  beds  arose  to 

*  "  Manual,"  page  616. 


7s  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product  ?  287 

within  20  feet  of  the  surface  of  the  sea.  If  50  feet  of 
sand,  clays,  etc.,  had  accumulated  over  it,  then  it  arose 
to  within  50  feet  and  then  ceased  its  upward  motion, 
and  remained  a  fixed  expanse  for  ages,  until  another 
bed  of  coal  had  accumulated,  and  then  sank  again. 
N^ow  if  these  changes  had  taken  place  but  once  or  twice 
we  might  conclude  that  as  it  was  a  remarkable  coinci- 
dence, chance  might  explain  it.  But  when  we  are 
forced  to  add  miracle  to  miracle  by  admitting  that  these 
changes  took  place  to  a  large  extent  simultaneously  in 
all  lands,  in  all  continents,  our  credulity  becomes  un- 
duly stretched.  And  when  we  are  compelled  to  admit 
that  this  oscillation  of  sea  and  land  lost  its  regularity 
at  times  on  some  continents  and  was  repeated  from  fifty 
to  one  hundred  times  to  form  the  coal  beds  of  the  same, 
and  that  the  submergence  was  frequently  to  abyssal 
depths  in  order  for  the  accumulation  of  limestone 
strata,  the  question  amounts  to  a  ridiculous  absurdity. 

It  is  plain  that  if  the  oscillating  bed  had  arisen  as 
far  above  the  waves  as  it  sank  again  and  again  be- 
neath them  that  no  swamp  vegetation  could  have  accu- 
mulated. But  how  did  it  occur  that  it  stopped  so  often 
just  in  the  right  place,  and  became  so  often  a  permanent 
fixity  in  an  age  of  constant  unstableness?  How  did  the 
beds  of  other  lands  join  simultaneously  in  this  process  ? 

Thus  it  seems  that  the  coal  is  planted  immediately 
upon  an  aqueous-formed  stratum,  and  all  the  beds  be- 
tween coal  beds  are  also  aqueous  strata,  and  as  we  must 
find  some  primitive  carbon  beds  as  aqueous  formations 
here  in  the  midst  of  sedimentary  beds  we  will  put  in 
our  claims.  Beneath  the  peat-bog  carbon  of  this  age 
there  is  frequently  a  shell  bed  of  fresh-water  species, 
and  the  carbon  is  deposited  immediately  upon  it,  while 


288  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  fire  clays  and  dirt  beds  of  the  coal  formations  show 
that  the  conditions  of  carbon  accumulation  were  entire- 
ly different  at  the  very  beginning  of  coal-forming. 
Peat  forms  in  fresh-water  swamps.  But  the  coal  strata, 
locked  between  marine  beds,  show  that  if  they  are  a 
vegetation  the  plants  were  marine.  But  right  here 
we  will  quote  from  high  authority.*  "  Algse  can 
therefore  produce  nothing  in  the  shape  of  coal."  .  .  . 
"  They  cannot  burn  or  emit  any  amount  of  caloric." 
.  .  .  "  All  remains  of  plants  found  either  in  the  shales 
which  cover  the  coal  beds,  or  in  the  body  of  the  coal  itself 
are  land  plants,  .  .  .  none  of  it  is  of  marine  origin." 
(Italics  mine.)  Now  what  are  we  to  do?  The  same 
authority  states:  "  The  remains  of  the  plants  are  only 
found  in  the  roof -shales  of  a  coal  bed."f  From  this 
we  are  forced  to  conclude  that  the  vegetation  thus  pre- 
served as  fossil  is  simply  an  involved  one,  and  came  into 
the  roof-shales  of  the  coal  after  the  coal-bed  was  sub- 
merged in  the  sea,  and  we  simply  have  no  means  at 
all  to  show  that  the  coal  is  a  vegetable  product.  Thus 
every  step  we  take  leads  us  deeper  into  difficulty.  We 
must  find  some  way  to  account  for  the  fact  that  coal 
was  deposited  over  a  vast  area  of  sea  bottom  in  different 
regions  at  the  same  time.  We  must  find  a  process  that 
abnegnates  the  ridiculous  and  accommodating  submer- 
gence and  re-elevation  of  beds  a  hundred  times  re- 
peated, which  the  old  theory  necessarily  maintains. 
We  must  find  a  process  of  fuel-formation  in  beds  that 
contain  but  little  visible  vegetable  remains,  locked,  as 
all  marine  formations  are,  between  marine  beds.  Thus, 
as  we  take  a  comprehensive  glance  at  the  difficulties, 

•  "  Leo  Lesquereux  Report  of  Prog.  Pa.,  page  609. 
t  Thid.,  page  618. 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  289 

we  find  the  vegetation  theory  to  be  unnatural,  and  not 
to  be  admitted,  whether  any  other  explanation  is  within 
our  grasp  or  not.  "  A  half-way  explanation  will  not 
do."  And  an  unphilosophic  explanation  cannot  be  tol- 
erated. 

Now  I  wish  the  reader  to  understand  that  I  do  not 
oppose  the  idea  of  local  submergences,  for  such  things 
do  naturally  occur.  But  I  do  claim  that  the  whole 
world  could  not  have  been  flooded  except  by  a  down- 
rush  of  super-aerial  waters.  The  structure  of  the  con- 
tinents proves  that  when  once  formed  they  forever  con- 
tinued to  be  continents. 

Dana,  in  referring  to  the  grand  structure  lines  and 
frame-work  of  the  continents,  is  forced  to  say:  "  There 
is  strong  reason  for  concluding  that  the  continents  have 
always  been  continents;  and  that  while  portions  may 
have  at  times  been  submerged  some  thousands  of  feet 
the  continents  have  never  changed  places  with  the 
ocean."  Now  if  there  be  any  truth  to  be  derived  from 
the  carboniferous  conglomerate  beds,  it  is  the  fact  that 
they  were  synchronously  formed  the  world  over.  It 
would  be  as  vain  to  deny  this  as  to  assert  that  the  de- 
posits of  the  last  glacial  period  were  not  formed  all  over 
the  Northern  Hemisphere  during  one  and  the  same 
period,  extending  through  unknown  centuries.  But 
the  intimate  relation  of  these  conglomerates  to  the  coal- 
beds  shows  that  both  were  involved  in  whatever  sub- 
mergence or  whatever  change  of  level  took  place. 

It  must  be  apparent  that  coal  veins  formed,  accord- 
ing to  the  general  view,  in  swamps  of  vast  extent,  must 
have  a  general  parallelism;  and  this  is  the  view  gen- 
erally held  by  geologists.  On  the  other  hand,  if  coal 
be  an  aqueous  deposit  upon  the  sea  bottom  it  is  plain 


290  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

that  the  parallelism  depends  entirely  upon  the  thick- 
ness of  the  intercalated  beds  in  different  places.  Sup- 
pose a  downfall  of  carbon  dust  should  occur  to-day. 
Borne  away  into  the  ocean  it  would  settle  upon  its  bot- 
tom over  all  its  irregularities  and  its  plains,  of  course 
subserviently  to  directing  currents.  Then  the  sand- 
beds  accumulating  for  ages  are  placed  upon  it.  These, 
of  course,  would  form  a  greater  thickness  in  some 
places  than  in  others.  Hence  a  succeeding  fall  of  car- 
bon settling  upon  the  ocean's  floor  could  not  form  a 
bed  parallel  with  the  first.  It  is  a  matter  of  ocular 
demonstration  that  there  are  actually  no  such  things  as 
parallel  coal  veins.  Sometimes  for  short  distances  they 
appear  to  be  so.  In  my  own  neighborhood  the  distance 
between  the  several  coal  seams  varies  from  20  to  4:0 
feet  in  less  than  one  mile.  The  main  coal  seam  of  the 
Leatherwood  Valley,  five  miles  west  of  the  Barnesville 
coal  shaft,  is  ninety  feet  lower  at  the  former  place  than 
in  the  shaft.  As  there  is  no  strata  fracture  here  these 
beds  are  evidently  lying  now  as  they  were  placed,  which 
at  once  refers  them  to  aqueous  formations  on  the  sea 
bottom.  A  careful  measurement  of  hundreds  of  locali- 
ties, given  in  the  geological  surveys  of  the  different 
States  and  Territories,  as  well  as  of  Europe,  demon- 
strates it  beyond  a  peradventure  that  there  is  a  general 
and  universal  want  of  parallelism  among  coal-veins. 
Prof.  Newberry  has  shown  this  so  clearly  in  his  report 
on  the  Ohio  coals*  as  to  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that 
the  coal  beds  did  not  thus  accumulate.  Hence,  we  are 
again  driven  to  the  only  other  source — i.  e.,  an  accumu- 
lation of  carbon  upon  the  undulatory  floor  of  the  sea.f 

*  Volume  II,  "  Ohio  Reports,"  pages  126  and  169. 

t  While  I  am  presenting  this  feature,  I  must,  even  at  the  risk 


7s  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  291 

Cannel  coal  is  another  unimpeachable  witness  of  the 
aqueous  deposition  of  carbon  beds.  It  is  admitted,  I 
believe,  by  the  principal  geologists  of  America,  that 
cannel  coal  is  derived  from  vegetable  matter  complete- 
ly macerated  in  water,  and  therefore  actual  aqueous, 
sediments. 

Within  three  miles  of  my  dwelling  is  a  mine  of  coal, 
on  one  side  of  which  the  formation  is  bituminous,  while 
not  100  yards  distant  the  coal  is  true  cannel,  and  the 
gradation  from  the  bituminous  to  the  cannel  region  is 
so  gradual  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell  where  one  ter- 
minates and  the  other  begins.  The  annular  theory 
would  make  both  an  aqueous  sediment,  and  just  as  the 
fine  sand  would  separate  from  coarser  by  the  direction 
of  currents,  and  form  a  bed  of  its  own,  so  would  the 
finer  particles  of  floating  carbon  and  clay  separate  and 
form  a  bed  of  cannel  coal  by  the  side  of  a  bituminous 
bed  in  such  a  way  that  no  man  could  point  out  the  line 
of  transition. 

I  am  glad  thus  to  be  able  to  quote  so  reliable  author- 
ity on  this  subject,  so  vital  and  yet  so  fatal  to  the  vege- 
table theory.  Prof.  Andrews,  with  the  keen  eye  of  a 
practical  philosopher,  saw  that  the  coal-veins  must  be 
parallel,  or  the  vegetation  and  submergence  theory  was 
opposed  by  law.  At  least  he  knew  very  well  that  all 


of  prolonging  this  discussion,  give  Prof.  Newberry's  opinion  on 
the  parallelism  of  coal  seams.  He  says :  "  Prof.  Andrews  ac- 
counts for  this  claimed  parallelism  by  supposing  that  the  different 
coal  seams  were  formed  at  or  near  the  line  of  water  level,  and 
that  the  subsidences  which  have  caused  the  successive  layers  of 
carbonaceous  matter  were  continental  or  uniform.  To  these 
views  I  have  been  unable  to  subscribe,  inasmuch  as  I  have  failed 
to  detect  the  parallelism  claimed,  and  on  the  contrary,  have,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  in  numerous  instances,  discovered  very  marked 
inequality  in  the  distances,  that  at  different  localities  separate 
coal  seams  which  are  unmistakably  continuous." 


292  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

continents  could  not  simultaneously  plunge  into  the  sea 
again  and  again,  and  not  maintain  a  general  parallelism. 
Prof.  Newberry,  with,  the  rich  stores  of  an  indefatiga- 
ble and  correct  observer,  announces  the  very  opposite 
conclusion,  and  backs  his  views  with  an  array  of  facts 
that  none  will  dare  dispute.  I  cannot  follow  him  in 
detail,  but  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  report  itself. 
But  when  he  tells  us  that  coal,  No.  1,  is  so  exceedingly 
variable  as  to  show  a  series  of  waves,  whose  summits 
are  in  many  places  50  feet  higher  than  the  trough 
"  within  the  limits  of  a  few  hundred  acres " ;  again, 
when  he  states  that  in  the  northwest  corner  of  Carroll 
County,  Ohio,  within  an  area  of  1,200  feet,  the  distance 
between  coals,  No.  3  and  4,  varies  from  20  to  45  feet, 
and  at  another  point  from  20  to  90  feet,  and  another 
110  feet,  and  when  he  says  that  the  interval  between 
No.  4  and  No.  6  is  equally  variable;  that  the  intervals 
between  No.  6  and  No.  7  vary  from  54  to  100  feet; 
that  the  distance  between  the  great  Pittsburgh  seam  and 
the  Ames  limestone  varies  from  140  to  225  feet;  and 
again  when  he  states  "  it  has  been  proved  that  between 
Barnesville  and  Bellaire  the  space  between  coals  No.  8 
and  No.  10  increases  by  more  than  100  feet,"  he  only 
states  a  philosophic  and  necessary  fact. 

We  will  consider  the  famous  cannel  mine  at  Cannel- 
ton,  Pennsylvania,  as  a  representative  of  this  class  of 
coal.  In  the  bottom  of  the  mine  is  an  18-inch  bed  of 
pure  bituminous  coal.  On  the  top  of  this  is  a  heavy 
mass  of  true  cannel.  Here,  then,  as  usual,  we  are  at 
once  confronted  by  the  unnatural  fact  that  two  veins  of 
coal,  one  placed  immediately  upon  the  other,  without 
one-tenth  of  an  inch  of  vertical  gradation ;  not  the  space 
of  the  thickness  of  common  writing  paper  between 


7s  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  293 

them,  so  as  actually  to  make  one  solid  seam  of  coal, 
yet  one  part  is  claimed  by  high  authority  to  be  an  aque- 
ous deposit  and  the  other  not.  The  bituminous  is  made 
to  be  a  vegetable  bog-growth,  and  yet  is  clear  of  any 
permeating  rootlets;  shows  hundreds  of  fine  lamina- 
tions, just  such  as  one  would  expect  to  see  in  a  fine  sedi- 
mentary deposit  from  water.  The  cannel,  a  massive 
accumulation  of  black  carbonaceous  mud,  with  very  lit- 
tle evidence  of  lamination,  is  made  to  be  a  completely 
macerated  mass  of  vegetation.  The  bog,  then,  in  which 
the  bituminous  mass  was  accumulating,  sank  not  as 
slowly  as  is  the  natural  process  of  to-day,  but  suddenly 
from  the  swamp  level  to  the  condition  of  a  lake  or 
pond,  and  the  hypothetic  slow  and  long  maceration  be- 
gan instantly  to  supply  the  cannel  carbon.  There  was 
simply  no  time  given  for  "  maceration  "  before  the 
vegetation  was  macerated,  and  began  to  fall  on  the  bit- 
uminous bed.  J^o  conscientious  geologist  can  stand  in 
this  cannel  mine,  seeing  these  things  as  plainly  as 
the  light  of  day,  and  say,  this  is  the  tale  of  the  cannel ! 
The  bituminous  bog  could  never  have  sunk  and  re- 
ceived the  cannel  vegetation  as  thus  claimed,  and  when 
I  find  this  the  case  in  hundreds  of  places,  sometimes 
the  cannel  above,  sometimes  beneath  the  bituminous 
and  so  often  is  it  the  case  that  no  parting  exists  between 
them,  that  we  may  call  it  the  rule  rather  than  the  ex- 
ception. The  subsidence,  if  it  ever  took  place  in  these 
cannel  beds,  should  have  made  a  parting  of  something 
that  in-rushing  waters  must  have  conveyed  to  the  spot. 
Thus,  while  it  is  impossible  to  explain  this  sudden 
change  in  the  character  of  the  two  deposits  by  the  old 
theory,  if  we  will  but  admit  that  the  same  process  that 
plants  a  bed  of  limestone  immediately  upon  a  sand  bed 


294  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

without  any  signs  of  gradation — by  simply  depositing 
the  bituminous  carbon  first,  and  then  by  a  slight 
change  of  moving  currents  bringing  in  another  form  of 
carbon,  the  solution  is  plain. 

We  must  conceive  this  carbon  as  susceptible  of  trans- 
portation and  change  as  any  other  sediment,  and  local 
beds  of  fine  carbonaceous  mud,  which  the  cannel  car- 
bon really  is,  could  not  avoid  formation  while  currents 
ran,  any  more  than  sand  or  clay.  Admit  all  such 
beds  to  be  sedimentary  deposits  of  annular  carbon  and 
every  mystery  in  their  formation  vanishes. 

Black  carbonaceous  shales,  so  universally  prevalent, 
must  have  had  this  same  origin.  Sand  and  clays  mixed 
by  intermingling  currents  with  floating  carbon  in  black 
carbonaceous  waters  could  not  fail  to  give  rise  to  black 
shales,  and  as  many  of  these  shales  are  almost  devoid 
of  fossil  organisms,  and  especially  of  plants,  to  attribute 
their  color  and  the  presence  of  carbon  to  vegetation  is 
unnatural.  And  all  must  see  that  if  the  earth  was  ever 
in  a  molten  state,  its  annular  carbon,  falling  in  after 
ages  as  so  much  primitive  soot,  could  not  have  failed  to 
blacken  the  waters  of  the  ocean  wherever  currents 
moved,  and  the  sediment  deposited  therein  must  have 
mingled  with  the  carbon.  If  the  carbon  had  been  in 
excess  in  these  shales  the  result  would  have  been  a  de- 
posit of  cannel  coal ;  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  clays  had 
been  in  excess  in  the  Cannelton  mine,  the  result  would 
have  been  a  black  shaly  deposit.  If  no  mud  had  inter- 
fered, the  whole  deposit  would  have  been  a  bituminous 
coal. 

A  remarkable  deposit  of  coal  exists  in  eastern  Penn- 
sylvania, at  Summit  Hill, — a  spot  made  historic  by  the 
great  Lyell.  Here  seven  coal  veins  at  first  occupying 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  295 

a  vertical  range  of  134  feet  (including  intervening 
strata  of  rock)  so  rapidly  approach,  each  other  that  they 
all  unite  into  one  seam  in  less  than  five  miles  from  their 
beginning.  Now,  according  to  the  old  theory,  that 
part  of  the  bog  where  the  one  heavy  seam  is,  stood  firm 
and  was  never  once  submerged,  while  the  space  imme- 
diately adjoining  went  down  and  returned  seven  differ- 
ent times  until  134  feet  of  rock  were  intercalated  and 
seven  seams  of  coal  were  formed  out  of  seven  successive 
swamps,  and  finally  the  whole  swamp  went  down  to- 
gether. Every  man  must  see  how  unphilosophic  this  is ! 
And  yet  how  easily  explained  as  sedimentary  beds.  A 
carbon  bed  was  formed,  currents  carried  other  matter 
and  covered  up  a  part  of  the  bed.  Another  supply  of 
carbon  settles  down  upon  the  whole,  and  the  process  is 
repeated  again  and  again;  the  strata  having  thus  been 
formed  as  other  strata  are  at  this  day.  This  simply  is 
a  refutation  of  the  swamp  theory,  and  the  idea  of  the 
parallelism  of  coal  veins. 

It  is  well  known  that  "  quite  a  number  of  boulders 
of  rock  foreign  to  the  localities  where  found  have  been 
met  with  in  the  coal  seams  of  Ohio."  (Newberry.) 
Here  is  another  emphatic  and  decisive  test.  Boulders 
in  a  coal  seam  mean  a  coal  seam  formed  under  water, 
and  a  foreign  boulder  in  a  coal  seam  means  a  coal  seam 
formed  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean. 

The  vegetarians  so  far  concede  this  as  to  admit  that 
"  the  ocean  must  have  been  very  near,"  that  "  the  ocean 
must  have  made  an  inroad  upon  the  coal  swamp,"  etc. 
Now  since  the  ocean  must  have  been  "  very  near  "  to 
have  deposited  the  bed  upon  which  the  coal  seam  was 
placed,  and  "  very  near "  to  have  formed  the  bed 
placed  immediately  upon  the  coal,  and  very  near,  when 


296  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

boulders  were  floated  over  its  surface  and  dropped  in  the 
coal  deposit,  let  us. admit  the  inevitable  truth  that  the 
ocean  was  "  very  near  "  all  the  time ! 

And  since  the  ocean  was  so  "  very  near  "  as  to  per- 
mit some  floating  body,  as  a  tree  or  moving  ice,  to  drop 
a  boulder  into  a  forming  coal  bed  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  it  was  about  as  close  as  we  need  to  have  it  in  order 
to  crush  the  swamp  theory  forever. 

In  conversation  with  the  intelligent  proprietor  of  the 
Cannelton  coal  mine,  above  refered  to  (I.  Mansfield), 
I  learned  that  water-worn  pebbles  had  been  found  in 
the  coal  there.  A  boulder  now  in  the  museum  at 
Columbus,  Ohio,  and  found  in  the  middle  of  a  coal  seam 
at  Shawnee,  "  weighs  not  less  than  200  pounds,"  and 
showed  the  marks  of  glaciation.  The  coal  above  this 
boulder  "  was  normal  in  all  respects,"*  showing  that 
the  vein  finished  forming  after  the  boulder  fell  into  it. 
Now  it  is  plain  that  if  there  had  been  a  submergence 
and  a  re-elevation  of  a  coal  swamp  that  the  condition  of 
the  vein  would  have  left  indisputable  evidence  of  the 
change,  but  as  all  the  evidence  is  positive  and  directly 
opposed  to  a  submergence,  and  in  favor  of  a  continued 
and  uninterrupted  deposition  of  carbon  upon  the 
boulder  and  its  new  surroundings,  it  is  impossible  to 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  Shawnee  coal  seam  was  a 
sedimentary  aqueous  formation, — one  of  the  seams  that 
the  igneous  world  under  the  dictum  of  law  declares 
must  be  found  in  the  aqueous  crust.  Boulders  foreign 
to  the  locality  are  found  at  Carbondale  and  Nelsonville, 
and  I  have  been  repeatedly  informed  by  intelligent 
miners,  who  have  worked  in  Scotland  and  on  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe,  as  well  as  among  the  Rocky  Moun- 

*"0hio  Report  for  1884,  Vol.  V,  pages  136,  100G. 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  297 

tain  coals,  that  they  had  met  in  coal  mines  with  water- 
worn  boulders  and  pebbles  (not  concretions)  of  differ- 
ent colors.  When  we  take  into  the  account  the  num- 
bers that  never  came  before  the  gaze  of  the  geologist, 
and  remember  that  but  a  small  part  of  the  field  has  ever 
met  the  eyes  of  man,  we  may  be  allowed  to  magnify  the 
evidence  these  "boulders  afford.  If  men  are  not  bound 
by  the  merciless  fetters  of  antiquated  opinion  they  must 
see  that  the  vegetable  theory  has  here  an  obstacle  that 
they  cannot  remove. 

But  other  evidences  are  found  in  the  coal  veins  quite 
as  positive  as  that  of  the  boulder.  There  is  scarcely  a 
coal  vein  in  the  United  States,  to  say  nothing  of  other 
countries,  that  is  not  divided  at  least  once,  and  many 
of  them  are  divided  into  many  horizontal  sections  by 
clay  seams  that  were  deposited  from  the  ocean's 
waters  while  the  coal  seam  was  forming.  These  clay 
partings  are  generally  very  persistent,  varying  in 
thickness  from  a  few  inches  to  that  of  writing  paper. 
In  some  seams  these  extend  over  thousands  of  square 
miles,  and  few  of  them  contain  vegetable  fossils;  a  few 
of  them  animal  organisms;  but  the  greater  part  are 
wide  reaches  of  barren  clay.  These  seams  declare 
what  no  man  will  contradict,  that  all  the  coal  veins  of 
the  United  States,  during  some  period  at  least,  and 
many  of  them  during  frequent  periods,  were  under  the 
waters  of  the  sea.  I  only  go  one  step  farther  than  my 
brother  geologists,  and  instead  of  admitting  that  "  these 
things  demand  that  the  oceans  were  near  at  hand  " 
when  these  clays  were  deposited,  I  admit  that  they 
were  present,  not  only  when  the  clays  were  deposited, 
but  also  when  the  coal  veins  containing  them  were  de- 
posited. 


298  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

But  the  testimony  of  these  clay-partings  does  not 
stop  here.  Supposing  that  the  lower  bench  of  a  coal 
seam  really  was  a  vegetable  product,  "  grown  in  situ," 
with  its  root  bed  below  the  coal  seam,  as  is  claimed; 
after  a  seam  of  carbon  is  thus  formed  the  swamp  is 
submerged,  and  an  outspread  of  mud  covers  up  the 
vegetation  to  the  depth  of  half  an  inch  without  enclos- 
ing a  trace  of  that  vegetation  in  the  parting  itself.  Now 
it  is  simply  impossible  that  a  parting  of  clay  should  set- 
tle down  upon  an  expanse  of  submerged  vegetation 
without  preserving  that  vegetation  in  itself.  But  it 
is  the  rarest  thing  that  even  a  trace  of  a  plant,  stem  or 
leaf,  is  observable;  what  conclusion,  then,  must  we 
draw? 

But  how  in  the  name  of  reason  did  the  vegetation 
that  formed  the  next  bench  of  coal  take  root  in  this  thin 
seam  of  clay  ?  Have  the  roots  of  this  succeeding  vege- 
tation been  found  in  this  thin  clay-parting?  I  have 
never  known  of  such  an  instance,  and  yet  I  have  lived 
among  coal  mines  the  greater  part  of  my  life,  and  have 
carefully  examined  hundreds  of  localities  for  them.  We 
are  plainly  forbidden  by  the  evidence  and  the  verdict 
of  law  to  claim  either  a  submergence  or  a  vegetation. 
But  suppose  that  to-day  a  great  carbon  fund  should 
float  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  into  Hudson  Bay.  This 
carbon  would  settle  upon  an  undulating  bottom,  and 
if  a  flood  of  muddy  waters  from  the  surrounding  rivers 
should  empty  into  the  Bay  while  the  carbon  bed  was 
forming,  a  thin  clay  parting  over  wide  areas  would  in- 
evitably follow.  The  clay  being  heavier  than  the  car- 
bon would  immediately  settle,  and  allow  the  carbon  to 
complete  its  deposition  afterwards.  And  further,  as 
this  inpouring  of  carbon  from  the  ocean  might  continue 


7s  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  299 

for  years  there  would  be  ample  opportunity  for  many 
clay  seams. 

Now  it  must  be  admitted  that  if  there  ever  was  car- 
bon dust  in  the  annular  system;  in  short,  if  there  ever 
was  an  igneous  and  smoking  earth,  such  carbon  veins 
with  such  clay-partings  do  now  exist  in  the  aqueous 
crust.  Have  we  not  found  them  in  the  United  States 
coal-formations  ? 

Microscopic  organisms  in  coal  so  far  from  being  op- 
posed to  the  theory  here  advanced  become  valuable  aids 
to  it  when  intelligently  considered.  I  have  elsewhere 
referred  to  the  axiomatic  claim  that  the  annular  sys- 
tem contained  the  seed  beds  of  animal  and  vegetable 
organisms.  It  is  beyond  our  power  to  determine  how 
far  the  evolution  of  organisms  continued  in  this  annu- 
lar world.  Trusting  that  others  more  capable  may  in 
the  future  come  to  a  philosophic  conclusion  in  the  mat- 
ter, I  will  not  press  it  further  than  to  reiterate  the 
necessity  of  the  claim  that  the  floating  mass  of  primi- 
tive carbon  clouds,  after  they  entered  the  atmosphere 
and  floated  away,  perhaps  for  centuries,  toward  the 
polar  regions,  in  their  efforts  to  reach  the  earth,  became 
a  tissue  or  web  of  evolving  vegetable  organisms,  accom- 
panied with  an  immensity  of  microscopic  forms.  Now 
I  know  not  to  what  extent  microscopic  forms  exist  in 
the  mass  of  the  coal.  I  only  know  they  should  be 
there,  and  that  in  the  deposition  of  the  coal  they 
should  be  segregated  upon  definite  surfaces.  Let  it  be 
understood  that  I  am  not  drawn  to  this  conclusion  from 
any  suspicion  that  criticism  will  force  me  to  it,  but 
from  careful  study  and  long  research  in  experimental 
work.  I  have  taken  fresh  soot  from  the  furnace,  with- 
in a  few  minutes  after  it  was  formed,  subjected  it  to  the 


300  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

hot  vapors  from  boiling  water,  and  stored  it  away  in  an 
open  vessel  of  water,  and  have  seen  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal organisms  start  into  being,  live,  propagate  and  die 
therein.  This  same  experiment  any  man  can  perform. 
Now  this  having  been  done,  I  want  to  know  what  is 
there  that  can  possibly  hinder  floating  or  revolving  soot- 
clouds  in  attenuated  air,  or  even  in  the  annular  system, 
— an  ocean  of  matter  where  every  disposition  and  po- 
tency of  matter  existed, — from  being  regions  of  organic 
development.  For  this  reason  it  is  impossible  for  me 
to  look  upon  the  belt  system  of  Jupiter  as  any  other 
than  an  ocean  of  organisms,  adapted  to  their  own  pecu- 
liar environments.  It  seems  to  be  the  inevitable  and 
universal  summation  of  a  disposition  in  matter,  akin  to 
spirit,  under  a  controlling  intelligence.  Then  looking 
back  at  the  carbonaceous  downfalls,  ranging  through 
countless  myriads  of  years,  I  behold  floods  of  micro- 
scopic and  other  organisms,  I  know  then,  experiment- 
ally, that  carbonaceous  waters  are  favorable  to  the  evo- 
lution of  organic  matter,  and  theoretically  that  carbon- 
aceous clouds  are  also.  What  other  conclusion,  then, 
can  we  come  to  than  that  a  fund  of  carbon  floating  in 
the  ocean,  or  lying  in  lakes  and  ponds,  would  give  rise 
to  vegetable  and  animal  organisms  adapted  to  the  con- 
ditions existing;  and  that  this  carbon  as  it  reached  its 
destination,  in  the  tedious  and  protracted  round  and  cir- 
culation of  currents,  would  involve  these  forms  in  the 
accumulating  mass? 

If  the  clay  mud  at  the  bottom  of  lakes,  or  the  cal- 
careous ooze  on  the  ocean's  floor,  as  it  accumulates  into 
beds,  involves  its  own  peculiar  life  forms,  and  presents 
a  mass  of  microscopic  and  other  organisms,  I  cannot  for 
any  reason  see  why  the  carbonaceous  ooze  in  the  same 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  301 

lake  beds,  on  the  same  sea  bottom,  could  fail  to  involve 
its  characteristic  forms,  and  that  the  same  as  fuel  car- 
bon would  not  to  a  large  extent  exhibit  them.  Hence, 
I  predicate  that  future  researches  in  this  direction  will 
reveal  the  fact  that  the  mass  of  coal  contains  just  such 
organisms  as  the  ancient  carbonaceous  environment  de- 
manded. 

As  is  well  known,  an  abundance  of  marine  vegetation 
exists  upon  the  sea  bottom  in  all  favoring  localities — 
creeping  stems,  with  roots  and  leaf -like  forms;  floating 
vines  with  reaching  tendrils,  and  with  roots  fixed  in  the 
mud.  A  carbon  sediment  rapidly  accumulating  would 
involve  all  this. 

Now  the  geologist  will  not  fail  to  see  that  another 
important  question  is  here  involved.  Under  almost 
all  the  carbon  veins  there  lies  a  bed  of  fire  clay, — a 
"  dirt  bed."  It  is  a  little  strange  that  immediately  ad- 
joining a  highly  combustible  bed  a  substance  should 
be  so  invariably  planted  so  refractory  as  to  form  cru- 
cibles for  the  fusing  of  almost  every  known  metal.  In 
this  bed  lies  entombed  a  profuse  marine  vegetation,  and 
the  fact  that  its  delicate  lineaments  have  been  so  well 
preserved  proves  that  it  was  suddenly  involved.  The 
fact  that  it  is  practically  infusible  argues  that  it  was  a 
fire-born  distillation  of  primitive  times.  The  fact  that 
it  so  generally  accompanies  a  primitive  carbon  product 
argues  the  same.  The  fact  that  it  is  more  generally 
present  under  coal  veins  that  are  more  distant  from  the 
tropics,  and  invariably  present  in  the  most  distant  ones, 
leads  to  the  same  conclusion.  While  the  fact  that  fire- 
formed  clay  dust,  sublimed  in  the  great  telluric  crucible, 
must  have  arisen  and  commingled  with  the  primitive 
vapors,  and  returned  with  them,  impels  to  the  conclu- 


302  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

sion  that  when  a  carbon-fall  occurred,  this  clay  matter, 
necessitated  by  its  greater  specific  gravity,  separated  and 
fell  first  upon  the  ocean's  floor.*  This  fire  clay  is  found 
in  a  modified  form  under  beds  of  primitive  graphite 
where  no  vegetation  is  involved,  and  therefore  cannot 
be  a  vegetable  distillation.  It  is  found  between  mas- 
sive beds  of  glacier  polar  ice,  immediately  under  a  car- 
bonite  deposit,  as  at  Kotzebue  Sound,  which  enforces 
the  same  conclusion.  This  fire-born  clay  is  found  in 
such  stupendous  masses  in  almost  all  glaciated  districts, 
whose  glaciers  radiated  from  polar  regions,  as  to  utterly 
confound  the  geologist  in  his  efforts  to  find  a  philosophic 
source.  It  is  found  in  lands  a  thousand  miles  from 
abraded  mountains;  in  beds  which  prove  by  analysis  to 
be  peculiar,  and  not  what  we  would  expect,  as  mud  pul- 
verized by  the  moving  ice.  The  persistency  of  these  pe- 
culiarities in  all  lands,  whether  the  abraded  region  be  si- 
licious  or  calcareous,  micaceous  or  f eldspathic ;  whether 
the  neighboring  hills  and  mountains  could  yield  such 
clays  or  not,  must,  it  seems  to  me,  lead  us  to  look  to 
the  annular  system  as  its  source.  It  is  said  that  not 
one  of  the  more  than  TO  coal  beds  in  the  Nova  Scotia 
region  is  without  its  characteristic  clay  bed.  When  we 
see  trees  standing  in  and  surrounded  by  this  clay,  and 
rising  through  the  coal  seam,  and  even  penetrating 
many  feet  into  the  overlying  rock,  we  are  forced  to 
admit  a  rapid  accumulation.  So  that  every  standing 
tree  in  such  a  position,  so  far  from  evincing  the  claims 
of  vegetable  distillation  either  in  clay  or  coal,  during 
immense  periods  of  time,  stands  as  insuperable  evidence 
against  them.  These  beds  accumulated  during  the 

*  I  greatly  regret  that  space  does  not  permit  me  to  follow  this 
important  question  further.  A  volume  might  be  written  on  these 
fire-born  clays  alone. 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  303 

lifetime  of  the  tree,  and  not  only  the  coal,  but  the  sand 
beds  above,  accumulated  around  it;  and  reason  urges 
the  claim  that  the  tree  could  not  long  survive  this  or- 
deal. But  the  most  moderate  estimate  of  the  time  re- 
quired for  the  slow  vegetable  accumulation  of  a  coal 
bed  alone,  it  seems  to  me,  ought  to  settle  this  question. 
On  the  other  hand,  admitting  that  every  annular  down- 
fall of  matter,  aqueous  vapor,  carbon-dust  or  snows, 
must  have  brought  their  associated  clays,  and  more 
largely  in  the  more  recent  falls,  all  these  otherwise  in- 
tractable problems  are  explained.  The  tree  growing  in 
its  own  swamp  clay  bed,  first  involved  by  the  aug- 
mented ocean,  must  have  perished  then.  Immediately 
the  ocean,  muddied  by  the  clay  and  carbon,  precipitates 
first  the  clay  as  the  normal  bed  for  the  coal ;  then  fol- 
lows the  carbon;  and  the  terrific  flood  of  waters  from 
adjacent  continents  brings  in  the  muddy  waters,  and 
the  great  fund  of  vegetation  of  the  upper  clays;  then 
upheaval,  and  other  changes  resulting  from  oceanic  aug- 
mentation, supplies  the  other  assorted  beds.  This 
brings  us  to  that  point  when  we  must  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  lime  and  sand  strata  and  their  fossils,  as  referred 
t 

to  in  a  former  chapter. 

I  know  not  whether  standing  trees  rising  from  coal 
veins  have  ever  been  found  in  regions  where  limestones 
predominate.  The  annular  theory  requires  that  such 
should  not  be  the  case.  These  strata  are  largely  a 
deep  sea  formation,  and  only  such  as  were  deposited  as 
mechanical  precipitates  could  be  formed  in  shallow 
waters,  especially  in  regions  beyond  the  tropics.  Hence 
it  is  plain  that  if  we  find  an  abundant  fossil  vegetation 
in  the  clay  beds  above  the  coal  in  limestone  regions  their 
presence  antagonizes  the  new  theory,  and  if  not  found 


304  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

it  antagonizes  the  old  one.  While  also  a  limestone 
stratum  deposited,  manifestly  near  and  among  shore 
deposits,  or  continental  detritus,  points  directly  to  an 
annular  origin,  and  here  we  will  expect  to  find  vege- 
table fossils  in  the  upper  clays.  Now  geologists  have 
here  a  chance  to  prove  or  disprove  this  problem.  So 
far  as  my  observations  have  extended  in  the  Appala- 
chian coal  field  this  theory  is  abundantly  sustained  by 
the  great  limestone  strata.  And,  again,  so  far  as  I  am 
able  to  gather  evidence  from  the  surveys  of  the  west- 
ern coal  fields,  it  is  felicitously  supported  by  the  general 
absence  of  lime  beds  among  the  coal  seams,  and  the 
presence  of  immense  amount  of  vegetation  as  fossils  in 
the  interposed  beds  of  sand  and  clay.  Again  I  must 
abruptly  close  the  consideration  of  this  wonderfully 
rich  field  of  thought. 

I  have  several  times  referred  to  these  as  important 
tests  of  the  truth  of  the  annular  hypothesis.  Since  it 
is  self-evident  that  peat  vegetation  for  the  distillation 
of  carbon  fuel  could  never  have  assumed  a  foothold  in 
any  region  if  the  peat  foundation  had  not  been  pre- 
viously laid  down;  and  since  the  great  peat-forming  re- 
gions of  the  earth  increase  in  importance  and  extent 
from  the  region  of  the  tropics  toward  the  poles  until 
we  find  them  under  the  polar  circles  where  the  soil  is 
solidly  frozen  the  year  round  (except  a  slight  cover- 
ing of  soil  in  the  short  summer),  it  is  plain  that  some 
stupendous  supply  of  carbonaceous  matter  has  been 
added  to  these  colder  regions  in  modern  times.  I  have 
shown  why  annular  matter  must  fall  in  these  higher  lat- 
itudes, both  north  and  south.  I  have  shown  that  car- 
bon must  have  constituted  a  part  of  that  matter,  and 
how  that  the  more  recent  downfall  supplied  it,  as  an 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  305 

accompaniment  of  snows,  etc.,  but  it  seems  necessary 
at  this  point  to  give  some  further  facts  tending  to  cor- 
roborate the  claim  that  the  peat  foundation  is  what  I 
have  called  carbonite  as  distinct  from  peat  itself, — an 
annular  product. 

In  Dr.  Anderson's  "  Practical  Treatise  on  Peat- 
Moss  "  he  frequently  alludes  to  beds  of  "  black  sedi- 
ment," "  rich  loam,"  "  black  moss  "  sunk  beneath  the 
waters  of  the  sea,  lakes  and  ponds.  Sometimes  divers 
have  reported  "  black  mud  "  in  the  Scottish  seas  from 
100  to  180  feet  deep.  At  Loch  Alsh,  also  at  Oban, 
more  than  100  feet  beneath  the  surface  of  the  water, 
the  harbor  bottom  is  covered  with  the  same  black  car- 
bonaceous matter.  The  same  is  seen  at  low  tide  on  the 
shores  of  the  Frith  of  Forth.* 

What  is  more,  this  same  black  carbon  deposit  "  has 
been  dredged  far  out  in  the  German  Ocean,  "f  In 
nearly  all  these  carbonite  deposits,  whether  on  high 
ground,  or  in  the  sea,  are  found  trees  prostrate,  and  some 
in  the  seas  with  the  trunks  erect.  And  the  simple  fact 
that  some  of  these  trees  are  such  as  do  not  grow  in  peat 
bogs,  is  the  strongest  kind  of  evidence  that  they  are  not 
true  peat  bogs.  The  ash,  oak,  fir,  alder,  etc.,  etc., 
says  Geikie,  are  found  in  them,  "  rooted  in  the  kind  of 
soil  they  are  known  to  prefer  !"  $  These  trees  are 
sometimes  so  well  preserved  that  they  are  made  into 
merchantable  lumber.  And  as  peat  is  an  exceeding 
slow  formation,  how  did  they  become  involved  in  peat 
beds  and  remain  undecayed,  even  if  they  could  have 
flourished  in  a  bog?  This  carbonite,  so-called  peat,  is 

*  Geikie's  "  Great  Ice  Age,"  page  298. 
t  Ibid.,  page  300. 
$  Ibid.,  page  294. 


306  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

not  confined  to  the  lowlands.  Large  areas  of  Scottish. 
Highlands  are  covered  with  it,  just  as  vast  portions  of 
Russia,  Siberia,  British  America,  and  the  United  States 
are,  and  which  if  covered  by  earth  would  be  peat  to 
all  intents  and  purposes. 

But  who  has  ever  reported  peat  submerged  in  the 
tropics — those  very  regions  where  luxuriant  vegeta- 
tion grows  and  dies?  Is  there  any  philosophic  reason 
why  peat  should  not  be  found  more  abundantly  there 
than  elsewhere,  except  the  fact  that  the  foundation  car- 
bon has  never  fallen  there  ?  And  where  in  the  tropics 
can  the  geologist  point  to  any  important  coal  beds  ? 
Here  is  the  very  region  above  all  others  where  vast  beds 
of  coal  ought  to  be  found,  if  vegetation  could  have  pro- 
duced them.  And  if  they  could  be  found  here  it  would 
sweep  the  annular  theory  from  its  foundation.  The 
simple  truth  is  that  peat  and  coal  are  not  found  where 
the  vegetarian  wants  to  find  them.  They  are  found, 
however,  just  where  the  annular  theory  says  they  must 
be  found.  The  vegetarian  must  leave  the  very  home 
of  vegetation,  and  in  defiance  of  all  law  he  must  find  his 
coal  beds  amid  vegetation  stunted  and  depauperated  by 
cold,  and  find  it,  too,  where  vegetation  could  never 
grow, — amid  rocks  born  in  fire.  Such  inconsistencies 
meet  the  geologist  at  every  turn.  Why  is  peat  found 
in  the  ocean?  Because  the  ocean  has  submerged  it. 
Then  why  is  it  found  in  the  thousands  of  lakes  and 
ponds  where  no  peat  vegetation  is  now  growing?  Sup- 
pose we  should  find  a  peat  bed  40  feet  thick.  As  it 
must  have  been  at  one  time  a  lake  with  40  feet  of  water, 
how  did  the  peat  begin  to  grow?  Did  it  begin  at  the 
bottom  of  the  lake,  and  fill  the  same,  or  did  it  begin  to 
grow  on  the  top  of  the  water  and  gradually  drop  its 


7s  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  307 

carbon  particles  upon  the  bottom  ?  In  either  case  it  is 
plain  that  all  rains  and  floods  must  have  washed  mud 
and  other  detritus  into  it  far  more  rapidly  than  peat 
could  fill  it.  But  there  are  peat  beds  from  30  to  40  feet 
thick.  This  implies,  according  to  Dana,*  240  to  320 
feet  of  vegetable  growth.  Such  beds  were  once  lakes 
or  ponds,  at  least  from  30  to  40  feet  deep.  How  did 
such  lakes  ever  become  swamps  of  vegetation  without 
being  first  "  filled  up  ?"  Did  vegetation  fill  them  with 
carbon,  in  order  that  it  might  plant  itself  in  a  swamp 
to  fill  the  lake  with  carbon  ?  This  is  the  pure  logic  of 
the  peat  bog  question!  Then  those  deep  coal  beds  of 
Montchanin,f  100  to  120  feet  thick,  required  vegetable 
growth  of  800  to  960  feet.  If  that  much  peat  could 
form  and  fill  a  pond  100  feet,  a  pond  15  or  20  feet 
stands  a  fair  chance  at  least. 

Now  suppose  we  should  find  the  same  regular  grada- 
tion in  the  quality  of  coal  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere 
that  we  do  in  the  Northern — that  is,  the  heaviest  and 
most  massive  beds  distant  from  the  equator,  and  the 
lightest  and  poorest  coals  nearer  it.  It  certainly  would 
place  the  primitive  coal  theory  upon  an  impregnable 
rock,  even  if  other  evidence  failed.  Through  private 
correspondence  from  South  America,  I  have  gained 
enough  facts  in  the  case  to  cause  me  to  place  this  on 
record :  If  geologists  will  show  that  such  gradation  does 
not  exist  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  then  the  author 
of  the  annular  theory  will  take  a  back  seat,  where  in 
that  event  he  ought  to  remain.  Here,  then,  is  another 
test  question,  with  which  men  under  favorable  circum- 
stances can  either  confirm  or  overthrow  my  claims. 

*  "  Manual,"  page  359. 

t  Phin's  "  Six  Days  of  Creation,"  page  64. 


308  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

There  are  numberless  instances  of  the  formation  of 
bog  iron  ore,  and  men  suppose  that  the  ore  in  the  bog 
is  the  product  of  a  vegetable  distillation.  But  how  can 
vegetation  produce  iron  ores  unless  it  had  previously 
a  supply  of  iron  upon  which  to  draw  ?  Are  we  to  un- 
derstand that  the  plant  makes  iron?  Or  that  it  takes 
iron  which  is  already  supplied  and  forms  a  secondary 
product  ?  We  must  look  back  of  the  plant  for  all  such 
supplies,  just  as  we  must  go  back  of  the  diatom  or  the 
millepore  for  the  matter  of  silicious  and  calcareous  for- 
mations. After  these  supplies  are  furnished  the  build- 
ers go  to  work;  and  without  these  primitive  supplies 
there  could  never  have  been  such  formations,  either 
primitive  or  secondary.  On  this  rock  the  coal  question 
must  stand,  and  if  this  primitive  supply  of  carbon  had 
fallen  in  tropical  lands,  there  would  the  peat  vegetation 
make  its  greatest  show. 

I  have  elsewhere  referred  to  coal  seams  among  heavy 
beds  of  conglomerate — the  work  of  glaciation.  Around 
the  Pottsville  anthracite  region,  Pennsylvania,  import- 
ant coal-beds  have  been  opened  in  the  very  body  of  the 
conglomerate,  and  must  therefore  have  been  formed 
when  the  earth  lay  in  ice  fetters  of  a  glacial  period. 
The  Sharon  coal  of  Pennsylvania,  says  Lesquereux,* 
"  is  placed  systematically  in  the  conglomerate,"  and  the 
very  frequent  occurrence  of  conglomerates  either  di- 
rectly above  or  beneath  the  coal,  shows  that  fuel  carbon 
and  continental  snows  have  been  frequent  associates, 

How  can  the  vegetation  theory  reconcile  these  incon- 
sistencies? But  here  is  where  annular  downfalls  de- 
mand that  it  should  be  found,  for  carbon  fuel  must  have 
fallen  with  the  frozen  vapors,  as  surely  as  with  other 

*  "  Report  of  Progress,"  published  1830,  page  630. 


Is  Coal  a  Vegetable  Product?  309 

annular  matter.  Coal  has  been  found  in  fragmentary 
patches  in  the  silurian  beds,  and  in  more  extensive  beds 
in  the  Marcellus  shales  of  the  devonian.  And  the  oc- 
currence of  bituminous  patches  of  coal  in  anthracite 
fields,  and  the  occurrence  of  heavy  anthracite  beds, 
where,  according  to  the  old  theory,  bituminous  matter 
should  prevail,  necessitates  some  further  consideration 
in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTEE  XV. 

SOME  EMPHATIC  AND  POSITIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  ANNULAR 

ORIGIN  OF  COAL  IN  THE  METAMORPHISM  OF 

THE  CARBON  BEDS  ; 

ALSO, 

SOME  CONCLUSIVE  TESTIMONY  FROM  THE  CRETACEOUS  AND 
TERTIARY   COALS. 

It  is  well  known  that  when  bituminous  or  lignitio 
coal,  or  even  peat,  is  subjected  to  a  sufficient  degree  of 
heat,  it  is  converted  into  hard  coal,  or  even  graphite. 
Hence,  it  has  become  a  common  belief  that  all  anthra- 
cite and  other  hard  forms  of  carbon  found  in  the  earth's 
crust  are  metamorphosed  beds  of  soft  carbon.  Is  this 
deduction  a  logical  one?  In  immediate  contact  with 
volcanic  chimneys  or  where  overflowing  or  intruding 
lava  has  heated  the  adjacent  beds,  coal  has  been  meta- 
morphosed for  a  few  yards,  or  even  rods;  but  such  heat 
in  various  instances,  known  perhaps  to  all  geologists, 
has  not  materially  affected  such  beds  except  in  that  im- 
mediate neighborhood.  How  is  it,  then,  that  vast  coal 
fields  planted  in  the  aqueous  crust  hundreds  of  miles 
from  any  igneous  agencies,  except  those  consequent 
upon  rock  pressure,  are  now  in  the  anthracite,  or  semi- 
anthracite,  state?  If  such  forms  of  coal  are  metamor- 
phic  matter,  there  must  be  some  infallible  tests.  Let  us 
hunt  them  up. 

In  the  first  place  the  only  purely  logical  conclusion 
that  can  be  drawn  from  igneous  intrusion  and  meta- 
morphism  is:  That  the  igneous  earth — the  great  distil- 


Fig.   12.     EARTH  IN  EDENIC  TIMES. 

(CANOPUS  AND  POLAR  OPENINGS.) 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  311 

lery  of  carbon — must  have  made  its  share  of  anthracite 
out  of  the  carbon  it  had  control  of.  If  volcanic  fires  in 
contact  with  carbon  can  produce  such  beds  in  a  limited 
way,  then  the  primitive  fires  of  tens  of  thousands  of  vol- 
canoes in  the  incandescent  earth,  in  contact  with  meas- 
ureless oceans  of  carbon,  must  have  made  unlimited 
quantities  of  the  same.  Can  there  be  a  man  of  reason, 
who  has  ever  given  the  constitution  of  this  orb  one 
attentive  and  intelligent  thought,  that  does  not  know 
that  the  immensity  of  carbon  now  in  the  earth  was  in  it, 
or  around  it,  when  it  rolled  through  space,  a  burning 
orb?  Now,  if  knowing  these  facts, — these  inevitable 
and  self-evident  conditions, — the  philosopher  chooses  to 
utterly  ignore  them  and  set  up  the  claim  that  the  last 
puny  fires  of  a  wrinkled  and  aged  world  have  metamor- 
phosed all  this  fund  of  carbon,  it  shall  be  no  fault  of 
mine.  While  the  peat  combustion  inevitably  points  to 
a  previous  one,  so  long  as  it  distils  an  atom  of  carbon, 
the  volcano,  so  long  as  it  changes  a  carbon  bed  at  the 
distance  of  a  rod  or  a  foot  from  it,  points  to  the  igneous 
process,  and  is  proof  positive  that  beds  of  anthracite  and 
other  hard  carbons  exist  in  the  earth's  crust  as  an  inevi- 
table product  of  that  process.  If  the  philosopher  cannot 
see  the  necessary  end  to  which  he  is  here  impelled  in 
spite  of  education  and  prejudice  I  will  attempt  to  per- 
suade him  by  evidence,  if  possible,  more  apparent  and 
conclusive. 

Now  it  is  plain  that  the  anthracite  coals  are  either 
bituminous  coals  changed  by  heat  to  hard  coals,  or  they 
are  themselves  an  original  and  normal  production;  that 
is,  a  carbon  unchanged,  but  placed  in  beds  in  the  form 
of  anthracite. 

It  is  then  plainly  our  next  duty  first  to  examine  the 


312  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

evidence  of  metamorphism,  and  learn  what  it  declares. 
When  bituminous  coal  is  changed  to  hard  coal  it  is  done 
by  merely  driving  off  the  volatile  constituents;  and  as 
a  matter  of  course,  all  the  ash  of  a  bituminous  coal  will 
remain  in  the  anthracite,  since  it  cannot  escape  as  vola- 
tile matter.  Thus,  if  in  100  pounds  of  bituminous  coal 
there  were  twenty  per  cent,  of  ash,  or  twenty  pounds, 
then  by  subjecting  it  to  heat  sufficient  to  drive  off 
twenty  per  cent,  of  its  weight  as  volatile  matter,  and 
thus  make  a  hard  coal  of  it,  there  would  be  eighty  pounds 
of  coal  remaining,  including  its  ash.  Now  twenty 
pounds  of  these  eighty  are  that  ash,  which  instead  of 
being  twenty  per  cent,  of  coal  as  before,  is  now  twenty- 
five  per  cent.  That  is,  all  anthracite  coal,  changed 
from  bituminous  coal,  will  contain  a  greater  per  cent, 
of  ash  than  the  coal  from  which  it  is  derived.  This 
seems  so  plain  that  none  surely  will  attempt  to  dispute 
it.  It  is  therefore  claimed  by  geologists  that  the 
"  average  amount  of  ash  in  anthracite  ought  to  be  one- 
half  greater  than  in  bituminous  coal."*  Hence  it  is 
evident  that  a  fair  and  candid  examination  and  analysis 
of  coals  will  settle  this  question.  Anthracite,  in  order 
to  be  a  hardened  bituminous  coal,  must  contain  a 
greater  per  cent,  of  ash. 

If,  then,  during  a  fair  examination  we  find  that  it 
does  not  contain  a  greater  per  cent.,  then  all  men  will 
be  forced  to  admit  that  it  never  was  bituminous  coal. 
After  many  years  of  examination,  I  trust  with  a  spirit 
of  fairness,  I  might  fill  many  pages  with  authentic  an- 
alyses of  coals,  and  hardly  an  instance  at  all  that  I  have 
collected  will  show  a  greater  per  cent,  in  the  average  im 
favor  of  the  anthracite.  But  I  will  lay  my  own  tables 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  363. 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  313 

aside  (partly  for  want  of  space),  and  use  only  those 
analyses  that  all  will  respect  as  those  of  well-known  au- 
thority. We  will  first  take  the  analyses  given  by  Dana 
himself.* 

The  average  per  cent,  of  ash  for  two  anthracites  of 
Pennsylvania  is  given  as  3.46.  Comparing  this  with 
Pennsylvania  semi-anthracites,  the  former,  being  more 
completely  changed,  as  any  one  can  see  ought  to  con- 
tain a  greater  ash.  Now  the  average  of  eleven  sam- 
ples of  these  semi-anthracites,  taken  from  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Geological  Survey,  and  here  used  by  Dana,  give 
an  average  of  7.16 — more  than  twice  as  much  ash  in  the 
softer  coal — not  very  favorable  to  the  old  theory,  when 
the  harder  should  contain  "  more."  But  lest  my  read- 
ers may  think  the  above  average  of  the  anthracite  too 
small  to  be  fair,  I  will  take  the  average  of  all  Penn- 
sylvania anthracites  as  here  given,  and  base  our  cal- 
culations upon  it.  The  average  of  26  anthracites,  in- 
cluding one  foreign,  is  4.35;  but,  including  only  Penn- 
sylvania coals,  the  average  is  5.28.  I  might  use  the  for- 
mer, but  that  the  examination  may  be  fair  in  every  way 
we  will  use  the  latter.  This,  compared  with  the  average 
of  semi-anthracites  of  the  same  State,  according  to  the 
accepted  rule,  ought  to  be  greater.  Eleven  analyses 
of  the  latter  give  an  average  of  7.16,  which  less  5.28 
=1.88,  all  on  the  wrong  side.  Again,  comparing  it 
with  the  six  semi-bituminous  coals  of  the  same  State, 
used  by  Dana,  we  have  10.20  minus  5.28=4.92,  still 
opposed  to  the  rule.  Then  comparing  it  with  fifteen 
semi-bituminous  coals  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland, 
the  average  of  which  is  10.32,  the  anthracite  is  less  by 
5.04  per  cent.  Now  if  we  compare  it  with  the  ten  an- 
*"  Manual,"  page  316. 


314  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

alyses  of  Pennsylvania  bituminous  coals,  we  have  6.47 
— 5.28=1.19,  still  contrary  to  the  rule.  Comparing 
with  the  eleven  Virginia  bituminous  coals,  we  have 
11.06 — 5.28=5.78.  The  bituminous  has  more  than 
twice  as  much  ash  as  the  average  of  Dana's  anthracites. 
If  we  go  outside  of  the  immediate  Appalachian  field  of 
coal,  and  add  those  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Iowa, 
we  have  398  analyses,  with  an  average  of  6.30  per  cent, 
of  ash,  or  1.02  per  cent,  more  yet  than  the  anthracite. 
Now  as  these  western  coals,  as  given  by  Dana,  contained 
a  less  per  cent,  of  ash  than  the  recent  geological  surveys 
give,  these  tests  are  very  fair.  And  as  any  one  can 
see  there  is  not  one  instance  where  the  rule  is  vindi- 
cated. How  it  ever  happened  that  this  high  authority 
should  notice  this  empirical  law,  call  the  attention  of 
his  readers  to  the  same,  and  then  immediately  complete 
a  large  list  of  analyses,  and  not  see  the  law  completely 
abrogated,  is  marvelously  strange. 

If,  now,  we  leave  this  authority,  and  turn  to  the 
American  Cyclopaedia,  article  "  Anthracite,"  we  find 
eighteen  analyses  of  both  American  and  foreign  anthra- 
cites, with  an  average  of  4.25,  or  one  per  cent,  less  than 
Dana's,  and  a  stronger  denunciation  of  the  rule.  Tak- 
ing this  average  I  find  it  to  be  below  the  average  of  the 
bituminous  coals  of  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  as 
given  by  Dr.  Peale,*  and  also  below  all  the  western  lig- 
nites, except  those  of  California.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  burden  the  reader  with  further  statistical  facts  that 
may  be  gathered  from  both  foreign  and  native  coals  to 
prove  the  utter  failure  of  this  alleged  law.  If  one 
should  take  the  analysis  of  an  anthracite  specimen  that 


*  "  Amer.  Cyclo.,  Article  '  Anthracite.' 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  315 

represents  a  very  high  percentage  of  ash  he  might  rea- 
sonably conclude  that  that  specimen  had  at  one  time 
been  a  bituminous  coal,  and  that  it  was  a  sample  taken 
from  a  true  metamorphosed  region  where  fire  or  heat 
had  actually  changed  it;  but  taking  the  whole  list  of 
samples  thus  far  analyzed  it  must  be  acknowledged  by 
all  that  the  average,  so  far  from  being  "  one-half 
greater,  is  at  least  one-half  less."  The  duty,  then,  of 
the  geologist  is  plain :  to  drop  the  doctrine  of  metamor- 
phism  in  reference  to  anthracite,  and  agree  that  "  it  is 
as  much  a  normal  creation  as  the  bituminous."*  But 
if  he  drop  this  doctrine  he  must  take  up  the  primitive 
carbon  theory.  There  can  be  no  intermediary  doctrine. 
It  requires  the  agency  of  excessive  heat  to  make  an  an- 
thracite, and  if  not  heat  brought  to  bear  upon  the  coal, 
after  it  was  laid  down  in  the  earth's  crust,  it  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  it  before  it  was  laid  down.  And 
if  brought  to  bear  upon  it  before  it  was  laid,  we  have 
no  resort  but  the  admission  that  such  coals  are  the 
primitive  products  of  the  igneous  earth.  It  is  only  one 
more  instance  of  the  demands  of  law — one  more  in- 
stance of  positive  testimony  that  settles  the  annular 
theory  upon  its  immutable  foundation.  Men  who  are 
abundantly  better  qualified  than  I  am,  and  with  better 
opportunities  for  gathering  information  from  the  coal 
literature  of  the  world,  can  see  for  themselves  that  an- 
thracite cannot  be  a  metamorphosed  bituminous  coal. 

But  let  us  examine  the  anthracite  coals  under  the 
light  of  the  annular  theory.  Again,  let  us  suppose  a 
heavy  fall  of  annular  carbon  in  the  North  Atlantic 
Ocean ;  and  that  the  Appalachian  Mountains  were  again 
under  the  sea.  This  carbon  carried  by  the  ocean  cur- 
•"Amer.  Cyclo.,  Article  'Anthracite.'" 


316  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

rents  southward,  would  fall  to  the  sea  bottom  in  the 
more  quiet  waters.  The  heavy  or  anthracitic  dust  in 
the  deep  waters  would  reach  bottom  where  lighter 
forms  could  not.  Just  as  a  log  of  wood,  not  being  able 
to  sink  very  deeply,  would  float  to  shallow  waters  and 
reach  bottom  there,  while  a  heavier  log,  not  being  able 
to  float  into  shallow  waters,  would  find  bottom  in  deeper 
seas.  It  is  plain  that  if  the  various  coals  of  the  Ap- 
palachian field  were  pulverized  into  dust,  and  cast  into 
Baffin's  Bay,  it  would  be  carried  southward  along  the 
coast  of  the  American  continent,  and  the  light  parti- 
cles would  find  a  resting  place  nearer  the  coast.  The 
anthracite  dust  would  settle  in  deeper  basins  distant 
from  the  shores.  That  is,  the  re-arrangement  of  the 
carbon  would  necessarily  be  very  similar  to  that  which 
is  now  found  in  the  Pennsylvania  coals.  The  heavy, 
hard  carbon  would  be  planted  eastward  in  the  deeper 
seas,  and  the  soft  and  light  forms  would  be  found 
farther  west.  Now  I  suppose  all  geologists  will  further 
agree  with  me  that  before  the  Appalachian  upheaval 
took  place  that  the  eastern  base  of  the  system,  being 
farther  out  in  the  sea  was  in  deeper  waters  than  the 
western.  How  did  it  then  so  felicitously  happen  that 
the  present  arrangement  of  the  Appalachian  coals  and 
the  probable  condition  of  the  sea  bottom,  accord  with 
annular  arrangement?  It  is  plain  that  if  the  anthra- 
cite had  been  placed  in  the  western  part  of  the  field, 
the  new  theory  would  here  have  been  a  failure.  And 
since  we  have  here  three  conditions  viz.,  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  coal  itself;  its  arrangement  and  assortment 
in  the  field;  and  the  condition  of  the  sea  bottom — i.e., 
the  sloping  from  the  coast  to  the  deep  sea,  all  pointing 
harmoniously  to  the  annular  origin  of  these  carbon 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  317 

beds,  and  finally,  since  we  must  find  primitive  anthra- 
cite in  the  aqueous  crust,  and  also  thus  arranged,  what 
need  we  of  further  evidence? 

But  an  objector  will  ask:  Why  do  the  bituminous 
coals  contain  a  greater  percentage  of  ash  ?  I  reply,  sim- 
ply because  bituminous  dust  not  being  able  to  settle 
directly  with  the  anthracite  remained  longer  in  suspen- 
sion, and  consequently  received  a  greater  amount  of 
marine  impurities.  This  carbon  floating  shorewards 
necessarily  encountered  more  detrital  matter,  and  be- 
ing lighter,  settled  more  slowly,  thus  allowing  more 
foreign  matter  to  settle  with  it.  Can  the  vegetation 
theory  in  any  wise  account  for  this  fact  ?  Again,  it  is 
plain  that  if  this  theory  be  true,  then  the  farther  west- 
ward and  southward  the  carbon  had  to  float,  the  longer 
was  it  held  in  suspension,  and  consequently  the  most 
western  and  southwestern  coals  of  the  Appalachian  sys- 
tem must  contain  the  greatest  quantity  of  ash.  I  need 
but  call  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  the  re- 
cent Ohio  Geological  Survey,*  of  the  200  analyses  45 
showed  over  ten  per  cent,  of  ash,  120  give  more  than 
six  per  cent.,  and  176  exhibited  a  greater  per  cent,  of 
ash  than  the  average  of  American  anthracites,  as  given 
in  the  American  Cyclopoedia;  and  the  average  of  the 
whole  list  of  200,  as  given  by  N.  W.  Lord,  chemist  of 
the  survey,  is  more  than  seven  and  a  half  per  cent.,  or 
two  per  cent,  greater  than  the  average  of  ten  Pennsyl- 
vania bituminous  coals,  as  found  in  Peale's  table  of 
Hayden's  report  of  1874  (page  177).  And  one  per 
cent,  greater  than  the  ten  samples  given  by  Dana  (page 
316),  and  two  per  cent,  greater  than  Peale's  average  of 
the  anthracites  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

•"Report  for  1874,"  pages  1099  to  1108. 


318  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

If  we  compare  the  Rocky  Mountain  anthracites  with 
the  other  coals  in  the  same  region  *  we  find  there  the 
same  evidence,  proving  that  the  former  were  not  de- 
rived from  the  latter  by  metamorphism. 

According  to  this  view,  then,  when  the  surveys  of 
those  regions  shall  have  been  completed,  the  coals  in 
the  more  southern  districts  will  prove  to  contain  a 
greater  per  cent,  of  ash  and  the  heaviest  beds  of  anthra- 
cite will  be  found  planted  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
great  plateau,  and  principally  in  British  America.f 

This  necessary  rule  in  the  division  and  assortment 
of  coals  is  also  interestingly  illustrated  in  the  north- 
ern medial,  and  more  southern  anthracites  of  the  Ap- 
palachian field.  As  it  is  evident  that  the  great  inland 
sea,  or  bay,  in  which  the  carboniferous  system  of  the 
Alleghenies  was  laid  down,  communicated  eastwardly 
and  northeastwardly  with  the  ocean,  the  carbon  must 
have  come  in  from  those  directions.  Then  it  is  also 
evident  that  the  more  eastern  and  northeastern  beds 
should  possess  the  greatest  specific  gravity,  considering 
the  ash  eliminated,  while  the  western  and  southern  beds 
would  be  specifically  lighter  with  greater  amount  of  ash 
to  eliminate. 

I  have  but  to  point  my  readers  to  the  well-known 
facts  concerning  these  beds  and  prove  the  validity  of 
this  position.  From  hundreds  of  localities  examined 
there  comes  but  an  occasional  instance  where  the  facts 
are  not  entirely  in  harmony  with  this  theory.  But  I 


*"Hayden,"  1873,  page  112. 

t  Some  years  after  the  above  conclusion  was  reached — i.  e.,  that 
there  must  be  a  vast  coal  field  in  British  America,  the  following 
paragraph  went  the  rounds  of  the  press :  "  A  seam  of  anthracite 
coal  of  fine  quality  has  been  found  on  the  Canada  Pacific  Railroad 
800  miles  west  of  Winnipeg.  The  seams  are  14  feet  thick." 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  319 

do  not  ask  the  reader  to  depend  upon  my  judgment  and 
observations  alone.  I  will  again  draw  from  the  Ameri- 
can Cyclopedia.  In  the  analysis  of  Carbondale  coal  in 
the  extreme  northeast  coal  region,  the  ash  is  but  2.70 
per  cent.,  the  lowest  of  all  analyses  given,  except  one. 
The  next  two,  one  from  the  Lehigh  district,  the  next  im- 
portant district  on  the  south,  afford  2.77  of  ash.  Still 
farther  southwest  in  the  Pottsville  district,  forty-two 
analyses  give  an  average  of  4.78  per  cent.  Still  farther 
south  and  west  in  the  western  district  the  average  is 
5.67.  Thus  taking  the  various  coal  fields  of  Pennsyl- 
vania in  regular  order,  from  northeast  to  southwest,  and 
using  all  the  analyses  given  (except  one,  exceptionally 
small),  there  is  a  manifest  gradation  in  the  amount  of 
ash,  which  the  annular  theory  imperatively  demands, 
and  which  the  vegetation  theory  cannot  explain. 

If  this  anthracite  coal  region  should  extend  further 
south  we  would  certainly  expect  to  find  a  still  further 
increase  of  ash;  and  in  reviewing  my  notes  I  find  there 
is  in  Southwest  Virginia,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bush 
and  Price's  Mountains,  a  basin  of  true  anthracite,  evi- 
dently a  prolongation  of  the  Pennsylvania  anthra- 
cites, where  an  analysis  shows  8.30  per  cent,  of  ash. 
This  may  be  exceptionally  large.  But  it  is  not  a  little 
remarkable  that  these  analyses  should  so  accord  with 
the  requirements  of  the  new  theory.  Now  the  density  of 
these  carbon-beds  is  a  measure  of  their  specific  gravity, 
and  our  theory  demands  that  this  density  should  in- 
crease inversely,  or  contrary  to  the  above  order,  and 
beginning  with  the  Virginia  anthracite  and  proceeding 
northeast,  we  have  the  following  gradation  of  densi- 
ties: 1.370,  1.383,  1.510,  1.554,  1.400.  Is  this  all  acci- 
dental ? 


320  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

I  cannot  with  advantage  prolong  this  argument  in 
the  examination  of  foreign  coals,  both  light  and  heavy. 
Enough  has  here  been  shown  to  cause  the  philosopher 
to  pause  and  reconsider  his  conclusions. 

Soon  after  entering  the  devonian  domain  we  meet 
with  a  widespread  deposit  of  black  carbonaceous  mat- 
ter, known  in  different  lands  by  local  names,  and  some- 
times divided  into  two  or  three  divisions,  and  again 
combined  into  one.  In  many  places,  as  in  some  parts  of 
Europe,  it  lies  upon  a  conglomerate  and  is  known  as 
bituminous  schists,  containing  remains  of  fishes.  In 
various  parts  of  North  America  it  is  distinguished  by 
its  bituminous  or  oily  character,  and  claimed  by  some 
to  be  the  chief  source  of  the  oil  flow.  But  be  this  as  it 
may,  it  is  a  dark  or  black  carbonaceous  deposit,  and  of 
course  it  is  claimed  by  geologists  that  the  carbon  is  of 
organic  origin.  Now  we  have  not  here  the  direct  and 
positive  means  of  disproving  this  claim  as  we  had  in  the 
formation  of  graphite,  for  here  we  have  organisms,  both 
animal  and  vegetable,  which  contain  carbon.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  if  a  deposit  is  carbonaceous  because  of  the 
presence  of  vegetable  remains,  the  greater  the  quantity 
of  vegetation  it  contains  the  greater  the  amount  of  car- 
bonacous  matter  it  contains.  Now  nature  will  vindi- 
cate herself.  It  so  happens  that  these  black  shales  are 
not  nearly  so  profusely  filled  with  fossils  as  the  rocks 
either  above  or  below  them.  So  far  as  my  own  observa- 
tion extends  the  more  highly  bituminous  these  rocks 
are  the  greater  is  the  paucity  of  fossils.  Dana  says  :* 
"  The  Hamilton  black  shale  is  almost  destitute  of  fos- 
sils, and  very  bituminous."  Again,  in  speaking  of  the 
Marcellus  division  of  the  black  shale,  he  says  (p.  271)  : 

*  "  Manual,"  page  275. 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  321 

"  The  black  shales  contain  but  few  fossils."  But  in  the 
face  of  all  this  he  says  (p.  268)  :  "  The  carbonaceous 
material  of  the  black  Marcellus  shale  is  of  organic  ori- 
gin," and  also  adds  that  it  has  not  yet  been  ascertained 
whether  it  is  due  to  sea-weeds  or  land-plants,  or  partly 
to  fishes  or  other  animals. 

Now  it  so  happens  that  in  these  shales  sometimes  fos- 
sils are  well  preserved,  and  their  preservation  in  abund- 
ance in  the  associated  beds  proves  there  was  an  abund- 
ant land  vegetation  during  the  time  these  shales  accu- 
mulated. There  were  lycopods,  ferns  and  equiseta, 
and  some  of  the  lower  orders  of  phanogams.  There 
were  more  than  forty  species  of  ferns  alone.  We  find 
them  in  abundance  in  such  associations  as  to  show  that 
they  are  there  simply  near  shore  deposits.  But  in  these 
very  places  the  shales  are  less  bituminous.  Now  if 
these  plants  produced  the  carbonaceous  or  bituminous 
products  in  the  shales,  why  are  not  the  associated  beds, 
which  contain  a  greater  profusion  of  organic  matter, 
themselves  bituminous  ?  These  dark  deposits  are  wide- 
spread, and  it  seems  impossible  to  refer  them  to  an  or- 
ganic origin. 

Again,  when  we  come  higher  up  in  the  series  we  find 
a  great  number  of  dark  or  black  carbonaceous  beds, 
and,  as  we  generally  find  that  these  are  only  expansions 
and  prolongations  of  coal  seams,  their  origin  becomes 
apparent.  Prof.  Andrews  has  said :  *"  Every  stratum 
of  bituminous  shale  in  our  productive  coal  measures  im- 
plies the  existence  of  a  coal  marsh  on  the  same  proxi- 
mate horizon,  and  should  always  be  noted  and  studied 
with  this  fact  in  mind."  He  also  states  that  these  slates 
and  shales  were  probably  formed  out  of  "  carbonaceous 

•  "  Ohio  Reports,  1873,"  Vol.  I,  page  357. 


322  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

mud  that  did  not  go  to  form  cannel  coal,  but  was  floated 
away  by  currents  and  mingled  with  mineral  sediments." 
I  would  like  the  vegetarian  to  state  how  the  waters  car- 
ried the  carbon  away  from  the  marsh,  forming  on  the 
"  same  proximate  horizon,"  and  first  made  a  cannel  de- 
posit, and  continuing  to  float  a  part  of  this  carbon,  and, 
on  the  "  same  proximate  horizon,"  made  bituminous 
shales,  without  the  waters  of  the  seas  involving  that 
whole  horizon.  Again,  I  would  like  to  learn  from  what 
proximate  horizon  the  Marcellus  shales,  and  their  con- 
temporary carbonaceous  beds  of  other  continents,  de- 
rived their  floating  carbon. 

If  the  primitive  carbon  theory  be  allowed  to  explain 
there  seems  to  be  no  mystery.  Carbon  that  fell  in  the 
water  and  floated  directly  to  its  resting  place  without 
coming  in  contact  with  much  detrital  matter  became 
a  bed  of  pure  coal.  The  finer  particles  of  carbon-dust 
meeting  with  a  small  amount  of  foreign  or  floating  par- 
ticles of  clay,  would  likely  form  splint  coal;  a  larger 
amount  of  clay  would  form  cannel  coal,  and  in  the  same 
horizon  a  part  of  the  carbon  meeting  with  an  abundance 
of  other  matter  would  form  black  slates  and  shales. 

There  is  another  feature  in  coal  that  requires  a  brief 
notice.  I  have  referred  to  the  well-known  fact  that  fos- 
sil plants  in  coal  are  generally  mineralized  charcoal,  and 
difficult  of  combustion.  If  the  bed  were  bodily  a  vege- 
table production  the  same  difficulty  would  certainly 
characterize  the  mass  and  we  are  therefore  compelled 
to  admit  that  the  plant  is  simply  a  foreign  body  in  a 
bed  of  mineral  carbon  and  is  itself  a  mineralized  car- 
bon fossil  simply  because  it  is  in  that  bed;  In  short, 
we  are  forced  to  look  beyond  the  plant  for  the  origin  of 
the  bed. 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  323 

Again,  mineral  charcoal,  so  frequently  found  in  some 
coal  seams,  contains  much  less  percentage  of  ash  than 
the  mineral  coal  itself.  The  charcoal  frequently  an- 
alyzes from  one  to  one-and-a-quarter  per  cent.,  and 
sometimes  as  low  as  three-quarters  of  one  per  cent. 
That  is,  the  part  of  a  coal  seam  known  to  be  vegetation 
is  so  free  from  ash  as  to  argue  the  inconsistency  of 
claiming  that  the  whole  bed  is  a  vegetation. 

Again,  the  surface  of  a  coal  seam  is  sometimes 
covered  with  undulations  akin  to  ripple-marks.  The 
roof  of  coal,  in  some  instances  in  coal  mines,  plainly 
indicate  that  the  clays  or  sand  were  deposited  on  a 
ripple-marked  surface,  and  these  undulations  are  some- 
times seen  on  the  face  of  the  coal.  These  things  lead 
us  to  conclude  that  such  beds  are  aqueous  sediments.* 

To  show  some  of  the  inequalities  and  lack  of  paral- 
lelism of  coal  beds  I  quote  from  Prof.  Andrews  in  the 
Ohio  Survey  (vol.  L,  page  352)  :  "  In  one  case  within 
the  area  of  a  county  where  there  were  five  seams  of 
coal  in  the  vertical  series  the  intervals  between  each 
two  consecutive  seams  are  given.  The  published  fig- 
ures show  that  in  the  subsidence,  before  the  second 
seam  from  the  bottom  was  formed,  the  originally  hori- 
zontal plane  of  the  bottom  seam  had  sunk  to  depths 

*  Though  somewhat  out  of  its  proper  place,  I  will  call  the 
reader's  attention  to  the  well-established  fact  that  some  of  the 
limestones  of  the  silurian  series  are  distinctly  marked  with  wave- 
lines  or  ripple-marks.  In  the  well-known  blue  limestone  beds 
of  the  great  Cincinnati  uplift,  are  many  such  undulating  layers 
of  wide  extent.  The  mass  seems  as  though  it  had  been  throws 
into  innumerable  ridges  of  from  two  to  six  inches  high,  and  when 
a  thin  stratum  has  this  peculiarity,  the  bottom  of  the  furrow 
thins  out,  and  sometimes  disappears.  The  ridges  generally  have 
a  uniform  direction.  These  things  certainly  show  that  the  blue 
lime  strata  of  the  silurian  were  not  deep  sea  deposits,  but  actual 
mechanical  sediments,  deposited  in  waters  so  shallow  that  waves 
and  currents  molded  the  sea  bottom.  Hence,  the  annular  origin 
of  these  lime  beds  is  apparent. 


324  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

varying  from  34  to  87  feet;  before  the  third  seam  was 
formed  the  second  horizontal  plane  of  coal  had  sunk  ir- 
regularly to  depths  varying  from  47  to  149  feet;  the 
third  plane  of  coal  in  turn  settled  down  in  some  places 
31  feet,  and  in  others  69  feet,  before  the  fourth  seam 
was  laid  down,  while  the  plane  of  the  fourth  was  found 
to  show  an  irregular  subsidence  of  from  13  to  40  feet 
before  the  fifth  and  highest  marsh  appeared  with  its 
luxuriant  vegetation.  ...  If  these  figures  represent 
facts,  they,  with  all  facts,  however  stubborn,  have  their 
rights.  These  facts,  however,  appear  to  me  to  have  un- 
usual stubbornness."  (Italics  mine.)  The  Professor 
goes  on  to  say  that  such  facts  are  "  barely  possible,"  and 
this  must  be  the  conclusion  of  every  philosophic  geolo- 
gist— such  irregular  subsidence  is  in  fact  impossible 
over  such  small  areas.  Again,  in  alluding  to  the  pos- 
sible elevation  of  a  coal  seam  whereby  it  would  form  a 
highland,  where  rivers  might  wash  out  the  coal,  he 
says:  "  So  far  as  my  observations  go,  there  is  not  a 
shadow  of  proof  of  any  such  upheaval  during  the  prog- 
ress of  the  formation  of  our  coal  seams,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  all  observed  facts  militate  against  such  a 
supposition."  This  illustrious  man  saw  plainly  that  the 
swamp  theory  of  coal  formation  did  not  admit  of  such 
a  supposition.  But  it  is  plain  that  such  irregular  sub- 
sidence and  re-elevation  must  produce  some  highlands. 
But  as  highlands  did  not  exist  in  the  coal  marshes,  as 
Andrews  avers,  we  have  no  alternative  but  to  admit 
that  the  coal  is  a  sedimentary  deposit  on  the  irregular 
and  uneven  floor  of  the  sea. 

In  some  places  fragments  of  solid  coal  have  been  torn 
from  a  seam  and  carried  by  currents  and  deposited  but 
a  few  feet  above  the  same  coal  seam  from  which  they 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  325 

were  derived,  showing  that  the  seam  had  hardened 
directly  after  it  had  been  deposited.  Now  peat  beds, 
after  being  deeply  buried  for  ages,  remain,  so  soft  as  to 
be  easily  carved  with  the  shovel. 

The  late  surveys  in  different  States  have  revealed 
the  fact  that  a  coal  seam  has  become  so  solid  as  to  be 
planed  off  as  smooth  as  a  board,  by  eroding  agencies, 
directly  after  it  was  laid  down,  or  before  heavy  beds 
had  accumulated  upon  it.  These  things  bear  witness 
to  the  fact  that  such  seams  are  not  vegetable  peat 
formations. 

Geologists  are  all  aware  that  vast  beds  of  carbon 
were  deposited  during  some  of  the  epochs  of  the  ter- 
tiary and  cretaceous  periods.  The  cretaceous  was  the 
last  period  of  the  age  of  reptilian  monsters,  and  the 
tertiary  the  next  succeeding  period — when  the  ances- 
tors of  our  mammalian  races  came  upon  the  scene. 
Both  periods  were  characterized  by  great  carbon  falls. 
Extensive  coal  beds  in  Asia  are  probably  of  the  cre- 
taceous period;  while  the  vast  carbon  beds  among  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  underlying  the  vast  plains  to  the 
east  of  those  mountains,  were  formed  in  the  tertiary 
period.  I  will  not  crowd  these  pages  with  a  considera- 
tion of  these  later  coal  formations,  in  other  continents, 
but  confine  our  investigation  to  the  so-called  lignites  of 
the  Cordilleras. 

If  it  could  be  shown  that  the  great  Rocky  Mountain 
plateau,  on  which  the  coal  beds  are  planted,  did  not 
exist  as  the  sea  bottom — over  which  the  waters  from 
the  arctic  world  rolled  during  the  tertiary  period — 
then  here  the  annular  theory  would  meet  with  a  re- 
pulse; but  it  is  well  known  that  during  that  long  era  of 
stupendous  changes  the  Rocky  Mountain  region 


326  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

throughout  its  entire  length  and  breadth  was  sleeping 
in  the  sea;  the  ocean's  waves  then  rolled  over  some  of 
its  highest  peaks,  and  the  great  canyons  that  interweave 
that  vast  region  have  been  made  by  devouring  streams 
since  the  coal  beds  were  formed.  The  tertiary  beds 
reach  from  Mexico  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  proving  that 
currents  ran  toward  the  equator  along  the  valley  of  the 
Mackenzie,  bearing  into  southern  waters  whatever  fell 
from  the  upper  world.  This,  it  may  be  said,  is  a  fact 
well  known  to  geologists.  It  is  easy,  then,  to  under- 
stand how  the  vast  expanse  of  this  western  world  be- 
came the  receptacle  of  tertiary  carbon;  while  the  dove- 
tailing of  these  two  facts — that  there  is  tertiary  carbon 
there,  and  that  a  great  tertiary  strait  poured  its  waters 
southward  from  the  Polar  sea — lends  strength  to  the 
claims  I  have  made.  Turning  now  to  the  eastern  bor- 
der, and  finding  no  tertiary  coals  there,  we  are  led  to 
believe  that  a  narrow  continent  stretched  from  America 
to  Europe,  across  the  present  bed  of  the  Atlantic,  thus 
hindering  the  southern  flow  of  carbon  along  the  Atlan- 
tic sea-board.  It  is  now  very  fully  conceded  by  geolo- 
gists that  through  the  tertiary  epochs  such  an  isthmus 
of  land  reached  from  Newfoundland  to  the  shores  of 
Europe;  if  this  be  true,  what  a  fund  of  tertiary  carbon 
must  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  North  Atlantic !  There  is 
every  reason  for  believing  that  if  these  later  coals  had 
been  formed  out  of  vegetation  growing  in  great  conti- 
nental swamps,  that  the  same  opportunity  was  offered 
by  the  Eastern  sea  border  for  this  swamp  vegetation. 
How  true,  then,  the  claim  formerly  made  that  before 
a  peat-forming  vegetation  could  grow,  its  foundation 
bed  must  first  be  laid  down !  Indeed,  if  there  be  such 
a  universal  tendency  for  the  formation  of  peat-coal,  as 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  327 

geologists  must  claim,  if  coal  really  was  formed  in  that 
way,  the  long  stretch  of  coast  from  Long  Island  to  the 
Rio  Grande  presented  a  great  opportunity  for  the 
formation  of  some  tertiary  coal.  Why  is  it  not  there  ? 
The  question  then  presents  itself:  How  did  it  happen 
that  at  the  very  time  our  theory  necessitated  a  chance 
for  the  flow  of  carbon  from  northern  waters,  an  oppor- 
tunity was  given,  just  where  and  just  when  it  was  re- 
quired— i.e.,  over  the  slope  of  British  America,  and 
when  the  coal  beds  were  forming?  And  again,  since 
the  absence  of  these  coals  on  the  eastern  border  of  the 
continent  forces  the  annular  theory  to  demand  a  bar- 
rier across  the  flood  ground  from  the  north,  why  did 
this  barrier  come  just  where  and  just  when  it  was 
needed  to  support  the  theory?  These,  it  is  true,  are 
minor  links  of  evidences,  but  they  are  links  none  the 
less. 

It  must  be  within  the  comprehension  of  every  reader 
that  if  the  vast  fund  of  lignitic  coals  is  a  vegetable  pro- 
duction, it  was  present  in  the  tertiary  atmosphere  as  a 
deadly  poison.  Now  look  at  the  immensity  of  the  coal 
field  at  present  known  to  geologists,  while  every  search 
extends  its  known  limits,  and  if  possible  conceive  what 
an  atmosphere  that  was.  Turn  to  the  waters  of  the 
cretaceous  seas  and  behold  them  filled  with  breathing 
animals,  and,  if  possible,  reconcile  these  facts: — An 
atmosphere  in  the  highest  degree  destructive  to  life;  an 
ocean  filled  with  fishes  and  reptiles — in  many  instances 
there  were  fishes  akin  to  those  of  our  own  time,  the 
recent  order  of  teliosts  had  ancestral  representatives  in 
the  cretaceous  and  tertiary  seas;  there  were  sharks  like 
the  modern  squalodonts,  including  our  salmon  and 
perch;  in  the  same  seas  was  the  populous  kingdom  of 


328  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

reptilian  monsters,  terrible  monarchs  of  the  watery  do- 
main, snakes  twenty  feet  in  length;  the  great  whale-like 
zeuglodon,  seventy  or  more  feet  in  length;  the  shark- 
like  carcharadon,  with  teeth  more  than  half  a  foot 
long,  and  five  inches  broad  at  the  base.  Turtles  lived 
on  the  shores  and  mud-flats,  so  large  that  they  would 
outweigh  the  largest  ox  of  this  age.  Reptiles  of  the 
higher  grades,  such  as  the  ichthyosauri,  combining  the 
several  forms  of  the  whale,  fish,  lizard  and  crocodile ;  the 
plesiosauri,  with  the  body  of  a  porpoise,  the  flippers  of 
a  whale,  the  neck  of  a  swan  and  the  head  of  a  serpent. 
These  air-breathing  animals  in  vast  armies  swam  the 
ocean  world,  with  hundreds  of  other  species  whose  hab- 
itat was  the  waters.  But  more  than  all  other  recepta- 
cles of  carbonic  anhydride — or  the  very  poison  the 
plant  required — the  ocean,  by  its  wonderful  powers  of 
absorption,  must  have  been  totally  unfit  for  either 
fishes  or  amphibians;  and  while  we  know  that  at  the 
very  time  the  vast  deposits  of  tertiary  coals  were  being 
made,  in  addition  to  the  ocean  fauna  the  mammalian 
types  of  the  present  races  in  mighty  hordes  possessed 
the  land  surface,  and  which  could  not  have  lived  in 
such  an  atmosphere  as  the  vegetation  theory  requires — 
can  we  possibly  reconcile  these  inconsistencies?  A 
coal-forming  age,  on  a  world  of  abounding  life,  means 
the  absolute  abrogation  of  law,  so  long  as  we  admit 
coal  to  be  the  product  of  the  plant,  any  more  than  it  is 
to-day. 

It  is  plain  that  the  tertiary  earth  was  in  all  other  re- 
spects a  perfected  world.  Fountains  leaped  from  the 
hillsides;  rills  and  rivers  ran  to  the  seas.  Birds  flew 
in  air;  flowers  clothed  the  plain  and  variegated  the  for- 
est. Man  might  have  lived  then  as  now.  The  un- 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  329 

wieldy  animals,  of  more  than  elephantine  bulk,  argue 
a  heavy  atmosphere,  which  in  turn  argues  upper  aerial 
matter  on  its  way  to  the  earth,  which,  in  fact,  is  the 
very  thing  our  theory  demands. 

Set  vast  continental  marshes  to  work  in  the  distilla- 
tion of  carbon,  how  quickly  it  would  exhaust  the  atmos- 
pheric carbon  now  present  as  plant  food !  Then  where 
would  the  peat-bog  look  for  more  to  continue  the 
process  ?  From  the  decay  of  vegetation  of  course !  But 
here  the  millepore  fiasco  appears  again.  Vegetation 
must  decay  in  order  that  it  should  produce  plant  food 
for  vegetation.  This  we  can  all  see  very  plainly.  But 
this  does  not  account  for  the  carbon  that  did  not  decay 
— that  which  is  stored  away  as  carbon.  Here,  then, 
we  are  forced  to  look  beyond  the  plant  food  in  the  at- 
mosphere for  the  deposited  carbon.  Did  it  come  from 
the  tertiary  volcanoes  and  solfataras  as  unconsumed 
carbon  ?  If  so  it  must  have  used  up  the  free  oxygen  in 
the  air,  and  thus  have  robbed  the  animal  kingdom, 
which  the  record  denies.  Then  we  are  forced  to  admit 
that  this  plant  food  came  during  tertiary  times,  as 
poisonous  carbonic  anhydride,  directly  from  the  inter- 
nal fires  of  the  earth.  But  this  means  universal  death 
at  the  very  time  the  world  was  peopled.  It  means,  too, 
that  the  oceans  were  bodies  of  acidulated  waters,  and 
not  all  alkaline,  as  they  are  to-day;  and  this  means  the 
dissolution  of  all  forms  in  which  lime  was  a  component 
part,  and  this  the  record  also  denies.  What  a  tribu- 
lated  path  the  vegetarian  must  lead !  Besides  all  these 
insurmountable  difficulties  it  must  have  been  a  very 
accommodating  and  felicitous  circumstance  that  the 
world  should  produce  this  plant  food  at  the  time  so 
much  of  its  surface  was  a  swamp  marsh ;  that  it  should 


330  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

(V          . 

fail  to  feed  the  swamp  vegetation  of  the  tropics,  or  even 
that  which  grew  in  higher  latitudes,  provided  it  was 
not  located  where  it  was  chilled  and  bathed  by  polar 
waters. 

There  are  some  simple  facts  which  in  the  philosophic 
mind  must  be  strong  witnesses  against  the  old  theory 
and  which  the  geologist  has  scarcely  yet  noticed.  Sup- 
pose we  should  take  a  common  limestone  and  saturate 
it  with  coal-oil — such  a  thing  can  be  readily  done  under 
great  pressure — we  will  then  have  a  bituminous  lime- 
stone, just  such  as  exists  in  great  beds  low  down  in  the 
bosom  of  the  earth.  If  now  we  subject  our  saturated 
stone  to  great  heat  we  can  soon  burn  out  the  oil  and  the 
limestone  will  remain  solid  as  before.  Not  so  with  the 
nature-formed  bituminous  stone.  Subject  it  to  the 
same  degree  of  heat,  the  oil  burns  out,  but  the  stone  is 
reduced  to  impalpable  powder.  Let  us  look  at  this  a 
little  more  particularly.  These  limestones  thus  nat- 
urally formed  are  made  up  of  calcareous  particles  ce- 
mented together  by  bituminous  or  asphaltic  matter. 
When  there  is  but  a  small  amount  of  the  bitumen  in  it 
the  rock  is  hard  and  solid,  but  when  it  consists  of  25 
per  cent,  of  the  mass,  as  it  frequently  does,  it  is  so  soft 
as  to  be  easily  carved  with  a  knife.  Again,  it  is  some- 
times found  as  pure  bitumen  in  isolated  patches  or 
pockets  in  the  body  of  the  limestone.  Now  as  the  lime- 
stone is  an  aqueous  rock  we  must  conclude  that  the 
carbon  matter  it  contains  is  also. 

Not  long  since  a  company  of  Frenchmen  successfully 
impregnated  solid  limestone  with  bitumen  for  asphaltic 
pavements.  But  heat  would  drive  out  the  bitumen  and 
leave  the  stone  hard  and  solid.  Now  this  seems  to  con- 
clusively prove  that  the  bitumen  was  not  a  cement  in 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  331 

this  case  for,  as  stated  before,  when  the  bituminous 
stone  from  the  quarry  was  subjected  to  heat,  the  bitu- 
men was  also  expelled,  but  the  limestone  reduced  to 
powder.  Does  it  not  prove  that  in  the  latter  case  the 
bitumen  was  a  cement?  It  does  prove  without  doubt 
that  the  lime  particles  and  the  carbon  particles  were  de- 
posited together  in  the  same  mass!  And  as  the  lime- 
stone was  matter  in  the  sea,  so  was  the  former.  Hence, 
so  far  as  asphaltic  carbon  is  concerned,  we  see  it  can- 
not be  a  vegetable  product  since  we  must  look  beyond 
the  limestone  bed  for  its  origin. 

The  "  pocketed "  bitumen  is  found  in  stratified 
Beams,  and,  as  both  the  carbon  and  the  calcareous  par- 
ticles settled  together  to  form  the  stone,  we  can  readily 
understand  how  the  assorting  power  of  currents  could 
separate  them  and  form  occasional  beds  of  pure  bitu- 
men. 

Another  feature  in  connection  with  the  anthracites 
might  be  mentioned  here,  although  a  little  out  of  its 
proper  place.  Quoting  from  the  American  Cyclopae- 
dia will  serve  to  show  how  utterly  baseless  the  meta- 
morphic  theory  is :  "  Prof.  H.  D.  Rogers  explains  the 
formation  of  anthracite  by  supposing  it  to  be  the  result 
of  altered  bituminous  coal,  by  heat  induced  subsequent 
to  the  formation  of  the  bituminous  beds;  and  he  fur- 
ther explains  the  escape  of  the  volatile  portion  of  the 
latter  as  gas  through  cracks  and  openings  formed  by 
plication.  This  plication  follows  closely  the  general 
type  of  the  eastern  paleozoic  rocks  which  are  intensely 
crushed  and  folded  near  the  contact  of  their  edges  with 
the  igneous  or  granitic  rocks,  and  much  less  plicated 
and  contorted  in  a  western  direction."  But  this  beau- 
tiful picture  is  badly  spoiled  by  the  eminent  collators 


332  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

of  the  Cyclopaedia,  who,  in  commenting  upon  these 
views,  say :  "  The  facts  do  not  sustain  the  theory ! 
First,  the  upper  beds  and  strata  are  more  distorted  and 
dislocated  than  the  lower  ones,  etc.  Second,  the  meas- 
ures are  more  plicated  and  crushed  in  the  western  than 
at  the  eastern  extremity;  yet  the  coal  of  the  latter  is  a 
dense  hard  anthracite,  while  that  of  the  former  is  semi- 
bituminous."  It  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to  add 
another  word  on  metamorphism,  except  to  say  that 
these  facts  just  stated  are  precisely  what  the  annular 
theory  claims.  If  they  were  otherwise  the  theory  would 
necessarily  fail.  A  theory  that  fails  in  one  point  is  a 
complete  failure.  Hence,  metamorphism,  having  failed 
in  the  most  essential  particular,  is  a  complete  failure. 

Then,  briefly  summarizing,  let  us  see  how  the  coal 
problem  now  must  stand  in  the  eyes  of  the  law: 

1st.  The  plant,  when  subjected  to  a  proper  mode  of 
destructive  distillation,  is  made  to  yield  carbon  in  vari- 
ous allotropic  forms.  So  it  is  with  a  limestone,  or  any 
other  mineral  that  has  carbon  as  a  part  of  its  constitu- 
tion. The  earth  was  made  of  such  minerals  to  an  enor- 
mous extent,  and  these  were  subjected  to  such  a  de- 
structive distillation  during  the  igneous  era;  and,  there- 
fore, these  forms  of  carbon  were  placed  in  the  earth's 
crust,  and  placed  there  after  the  primitive  fires  died 
out. 

2d.  All  such  primitive  distillations  existed  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  incandescent  earth,  which,  upon  cool- 
ing and  condensing,  formed  a  part  and  parcel  of  the 
earth's  annular  system,  of  meteoric  and  vaporous 
matter. 

3d.  This  matter,  as  it  declined  and  commingled  with 
the  true  atmosphere  of  after  ages,  changed  from  the 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  333 

ring  into  the  belt-form  and  over-canopied  the  earth  in 
its  efforts  to  reach  its  surface,  and  consequently  fell 
largely  in  regions  outside  of  the  tropics. 

4th.  The  heaviest  form  of  carbon  fell  largely  in  the 
earliest  ages;  though  all  sections  of  the  system  must 
have  had  some  of  each  form,  the  outer  sections  must 
have  possessed  the  largest  part  of  the  light  forms  of 
carbon,  and  the  inmost  sections  the  largest  part  of 
the  heaviest  forms. 

5th.  Thus  all  ages  were  more  or  less  characterized 
by  carbon  falls,  and  no  age  could  be  exclusively  car- 
boniferous. 

6th.  Carbon,  falling  into  the  ocean  directly,  would 
separate  into  lighter  and  heavier  forms  and  settle  ac- 
cordingly in  higher  and  lower  elevations  (shallower 
and  deeper  parts)  of  the  sea,  thus  explaining  why  dif- 
ferent forms  of  coal  are  found  frequently  on  the  same 
proximate  horizon. 

7th.  The  earliest  or  heaviest  forms  are  free  from  or- 
ganic remains,  and  must,  therefore,  be  a  primitive  dis- 
tillation ;  and  the  other  carbon  beds,  by  their  associated 
strata,  by  their  involved  vegetation  and  other  organ- 
isms, by  accompanying  clay-partings,  by  involved  gla- 
cial drift,  by  latitudinal  gradation  in  quantity  of  ash 
and  specific  gravity,  by  their  characteristic  absence 
from  the  tropics  and  heavy  deposits  in  higher  latitudes, 
by  synchronous  formation  in  all  continents,  by  their 
evident  formation  in  the  very  lap  and  bosom  of  the 
glacier — amid  ice  and  flood;  by  the  fact  that  they  are 
bituminous,  oily  hydro-carbons,  and  by  a  multitude  of 
inconsistencies  and  impossibilities  involved  in  the  vege- 
tation theory,  have  been  shown  to  be  actual  sediment- 
ary deposits,  and  therefore  a  primitive  product. 


334  The  Earth's  Anntdar  System. 

It  has  been  my  lot  to  pass  the  greater  part  of  my  life 
among  coal  veins  and  coal  mines.  When  a  boy  I  was 
a  coal-digger  in  my  father's  coal  bank,  and  my  eyes 
have  seen  the  evidence  embodied  in  this  volume,  and 
much  more  that  I  cannot  use  here ;  and  though  brought 
up  in  the  vegetarian  school,  and  a  full  believer  in  that 
doctrine,  till  forced  to  denounce  it  by  cumulative  and 
crushing  testimony,  I  must  say  I  have  never  seen,  in  the 
hundreds  of  coal  veins  I  have  carefully  examined,  one 
jot  of  evidence  that  would  lead  a  philosophic  geologist 
to  say  it  did  not  evince  aqueous  deposition.  Since 
then  there  is  not  so  much  as  one  feature  connected  with 
the  formation  of  coal  that  is  not  readily  explainable  by 
the  primitive  carbon  theory;  not  one  that  philosophic 
law  does  not  resolve  into  harmony  with  annular  declen- 
sion, without  even  the  show  of  conflict;  and  since  vege- 
tarians are  forever  stumbling  upon  inexplicable  diffi- 
culties, boulders,  pebbles,  pockets,  doubling  of  coal- 
beds,  undulations,  slopes,  ripple-marks,  clay-partings, 
cannel  coal  inseparably  joined  with  bituminous  coal, 
anthracites  with  less  amount  of  ash,  marine  impurities, 
carbon  planted  in  archsean  beds,  air-breathing  animals 
among  tertiary  coals,  carbon  dredged  from  the  ocean, 
dug  from  the  frozen  world,  and  innumerable  other  ob- 
jections over  which  they  cannot  climb,  I  am  free  to  say 
to  my  brother  geologists :  Come  to  this  new  field !  The 
vegetation  theory  cannot  be  true !  You  all  know  full 
well  that  these  stubborn  facts  are  continually  multiply- 
ing, and  before  many  years  roll  around  you  must  know 
full  well  that  normal  world-evolution  is  annular  declen- 
sion. Deny  this,  and  you  then  must  deny  primitive 
igneous  action. 

It  was  not  until  after  many  years  of  an  effort  to  ex- 


Some  Emphatic  and  Positive  Evidence.  335 

plain  these  difficulties  upon  the  old  theory  that  I  con- 
sented to  connect  it  with  annular  matter;  but  when 
once  placed  upon  this  new  foundation  every  difficulty 
vanished,  and  investigators  must  soon  take  up  the  coal 
question,  thus  imperfectly  treated  in  these  chapters, 
and  bring  inexpressible  beauty  out  of  confusion. 


CHAPTEK  XVI 

OIL,  GAS  AND  OTHEE  CARBONS. 

We  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  those  com- 
pounds which  above  all  others  stand  as  monumental 
witnesses  of  the  primitive  origin  of  the  carbon  forms 
now  stored  in  the  earth's  crust.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  bitumen  in  its  rocky  matrix,  when  subjected  to  su- 
ficient  heat,  is  driven  out  as  an  educt,  not  as  a  product 
of  the  rock.  Being  an  educt,  we  must  look  beyond  the 
rock  for  its  origin,  and  where  else  can  we  look  but  back 
into  the  igneous  earth,  which,  millions  of  years  before 
a  fish  swam  the  ocean,  or  a  plant  rooted  in  the  soil,  had 
entire  and  complete  control  of  all  the  carbon  in  the 
planet  ? 

When  we  take  the  sooty  carbon  from  our  chimneys 
and  make  it  yield  oil,  asphalt  and  graphite,  it  would  be 
difficult  for  the  intelligent  chemist  to  understand  how 
the  primitive  earth  fires  could  elaborate  this  planetary 
carbon  into  anything  else  than  the  very  forms  now 
locked  in  the  strata  of  the  world.  How  can  the  geolo- 
gist get  around  or  over  this  rock,  when  he  knows  as  well 
as  any  one  that  it  was  the  legitimate  business  of  the 
primitive  heat  to  make  hydro-carbons  as  we  find  them 
to-day  ?  It  is  not  so  much  a  question  as  to  what  pro- 
duced these  carbons  as  to  how  a  molten  world  consti- 
tuted as  ours  is  could  avoid  producing  them. 

What  nature  has  made  in  measureless  quantities,  and 
is  yet,  as  a  puny  offspring,  of  an  exhaustless  energy, 
making  under  favorable  and  possible  conditions,  man, 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  337 

with  his  accumulated  and  growing  knowledge  of  chemi- 
cal laws,  can  make  in  his  laboratory.  He  can  take  the 
living  mollusk,  or  fish,  or  the  human  body,  or  any  other 
organism,  animal  or  vegetable,  and  subject  it  to  heat  in 
his  retort  and  make  all  the  carbons  that  were  made  in 
the  molten  earth.  But  while  he  can  do  this,  he  has  no 
right  to  conclude  that  because  he  can  thus  manipulate 
organic  matter  the  carbons  and  hydro-carbons  of  the 
earth  were  derived  from  fishes  and  mollusks.  It  should 
not  be  forgotten  that  all  organic  matter  is  in  part  an 
ultimate  derivative  from  and  of  the  molten  earth.  Rep- 
tiles, lobsters  and  fishes,  as  well  as  the  plant,  are  to  all 
intents  already  hydro-carbons  at  hand  for  the  chemist 
to  elaborate  into  anthracite,  asphalt  and  petroleum, 
and  the  innumerable  other  carbon  forms.  Chemists 
have  made  bitumen  from  fish  oil,  and  paper  and  shavings 
of  wood  answer  the  same  purpose ;  and  he  need  not  stop 
there,  for  any  organic  oil  will  fill  its  place.  If  fishes  and 
plants  are  to  have  the  credit  of  making  the  vast  hoards 
of  oil  in  the  earth,  why  not  conclude  that  the  different 
kinds  of  fish  and  different  kinds  of  plants  made  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  oil.  Of  course  the  olive  plant  could  not 
make  fish  oil. 

The  simple  fact  that  in  thousands  of  laboratories 
these  liquid  and  solid  distillates  are  being  formed  to-day 
by  artificial  means  ought  to  lead  the  scientist  to  con- 
clude that  the  molten  earth,  with  all  the  carbon,  hydro- 
gen and  oxygen  right  at  hand,  could  not  have  failed  to 
fill  itself  with  these  crude  distillates.  The  grand  op- 
portunity thus  afforded  could  not  have  been  shunned, 
and  the  chemist  to-day  redistills  what  the  primitive  fire 
placed  within  his  reach ;  and  this  is  just  what  the  animal 
and  the  plant  have  been  doing  all  the  time  in  the 


338  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

scheme  of  world-making.  In  the  artificial  manufacture 
of  creosote  and  carbolic  acid  man  has  exhibited  but  lit- 
tle more  skill  than  Dame  Nature.  The  latter,  having 
had  the  monopoly  in  oil  making,  accidentally,  as  it 
were,  gave  her  survivals  an  opportunity  to  continue 
what  she  had  well  nigh  completed  in  the  igneous  age. 

The  organic  oils  are  not  the  only  source  from  which 
hydro-carbons  can  be  obtained.  Limestones  and  all  the 
carbonates,  when  subjected  to  dissolving  heat  and 
moisture,  will  yield  the  asphaltic  compounds  and  oily 
distillates.  If  the  various  forms  of  bitumen  are  readily, 
formed  from  animal  and  vegetable  matter,  under  a  mod- 
erate degree  of  heat,  a  higher  degree  of  heat  will  pro- 
duce the  more  refractory  compounds,  as  gilsanite, 
graphite,  etc.  All  the  residual  compounds,  such  as  re- 
main last  in  the  chemist's  retort,  are  simply  these  more 
refractory  compounds.  Nature  left  these  residuals  as 
the  asphalts,  graphites,  etc.  Besides  the  carbon  and 
hydrogen  in  the  asphalts,  many  of  them  contain  other 
elements,  as  sulphur,  nitrogen  and  mineral  ash. 

I  have  in  my  laboratory  a  specimen  of  residual  car- 
bon taken  from  the  laurentian  beds  near  Toronto,  Can- 
ada. It  is  in  a  high  degree  crystalline,  bright  and 
glossy,  and  burns  as  readily  as  anthracite,  leaving  the 
merest  trace  of  ash.  If  geologists  must  insist  that  this 
is  a  product  of  an  ancient  vegetation,  where  not  a  trace 
of  a  plant  can  be  found,  when  every  one  must  admit 
that  such  a  product  must  contain  more  abundant  ash, 
I  can  with  a  thousand  times  more  reason  insist  that  this 
crystalline  fuel  is  a  residual  product  of  the  reducing 
fires  that  sent  oily  vapors  to  the  skies  millions  of  years 
before  the  earth  could  support  a  plant.  The  thinker  ia 
forced  to  admit  that  even  the  plant  could  never  have 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  339 

existed  and  entered  upon  its  survival  work,  if  these  car- 
bons had  not  been  gathered  from  the  earth's  inmost 
depths  by  reducing  heat,  and  why  in  the  name  of  rea- 
son the  plant,  as  an  actual  result  and  product  of  primi- 
tive heat,  should  be  made  to  do  all  this  antecedent  work 
in  addition  to  its  legitimate  labors  is  indeed  strange. 
Why  should  the  plant  present  the  fire-gathered  carbon 
as  a  secondary  or  inadequate  distillation,  when,  as  all 
must  know,  the  first  one  was  a  million  times  more  com- 
petent and  certain  in  its  work  ?  Why  have  men  so  long 
closed  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  all  present  energies,  all 
present  world-processes,  are  but  dying  efforts,  and  can 
in  no  sense  compare  with  the  Titanic  labors  of  the  pri- 
meval earth. 

There  was  a  day  when  the  world-heat  was  beginning 
— a  day  when  the  reducing  fires  were  starting  on  their 
grand  career  of  world-making.  In  that  day  the  young 
earth  could  no  more  avoid  the  evolution  of  the  lighter 
and  readily  formed  hydro-carbons  than  the  artificial 
furnace  can  avoid  it  now.  With  a  heat  of  less  than 
200°  Cent,  fuel  gas  comes  from  the  chemist's  retort  to- 
day, and  I  assume  such  tractable  products  arose  from 
the  earth's  initial  fires,  and  as  sure  as  fate  they  went 
to  the  skies  along  with  other  steaming  vapors. 

As  the  earth-fires  progressed  and  the  heat  became 
more  intense  other  and  heavier  products  arose,  until  in 
the  course  of  eons  the  world  shone  as  a  star,  with  a 
glowing  ocean  of  unconsumed  fuel.  During  all  that  im- 
measurable lapse  of  time,  let  us  remember,  all  these 
fiery  sublimations  were  being  assorted  by  their  affinities 
and  gravital  tendencies.  The  lightest  forms  would 
float  the  highest  and  arrange  themselves  in  the  outer- 
most rings  of  the  system,  and  as  a  matter  of  course  they 


340  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

would  be  the  last  to  descend,  and  these  must  be  found 
to-day  placed  in  the  uppermost  crust  of  the  earth.  The 
heaviest  forms  of  carbon,  such  as  the  graphite,  would 
ride  the  lowest  in  the  fiery  envelope  and  fall  early  in 
the  geologic  past,  and  must  be  found  in  the  oldest  beds. 
Is  it  necessary  for  me  to  more  than  tell  the  fact  that 
these  carbons  forms  are  found  just  as  this  orderly 
scheme  demands?  The  heaviest  graphitic  masses  are 
met  with  in  the  oldest  beds  only,  and  the  lighter  are  lo- 
cated away  above  them. 

The  heaviest  distillations  fell  back  upon  a  hot  but 
cooling  core,  and  as  these  all  had  passed  through  the 
fire  test  everything  with  them  must  be  incombustible  in 
ordinary  heat,  and  we  all  know  what  crucibles  of 
graphite  are  capable  of.  Rocks  of  these  oldest  forma- 
tions, as  all  can  see,  are  not  fusible  by  any  ordinary 
heat  simply  because  they  have  passed  through  a  higher 
heat  test.  Will  the  old  school  tell  us  why  and  how  the 
readily  fused  rocks  are  thus  separated  from  the  more 
refractory?  Why  have  ages  separated  them?  Annu- 
lar world  evolution  only  can  explain  it  and  tell  how  and 
why !  It  will  be  well  to  inquire  somewhat  into  the 
primitive  deportment  of  the  oily  carbons.  During  the 
great  oil  excitement  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  when  wells 
were  being  drilled  all  along  the  upper  branches  of  the 
river,  many  of  these  overflowed  and  ran  down  into  the 
river  channel.  When  the  waters  of  the  river  were  clear 
this  oil  spread  over  a  vast  surface,  but  it  was  frequently 
observed  that  during  freshets,  when  muddy  water  came 
down  the  channel,  the  oil  on  the  surface  of  the  stream 
rapidly  disappeared.  It  was  found  mixed  with  the  fine 
mud  particles — clay,  lime,  etc. — and  sunk  to  the  bottom 
of  the  stream.  In  other  words,  it  was  found  that  petro- 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  341 

leum — oily  carbon — had  at  least  a  mechanical  affinity 
for  lime  and  clay  particles.  If  this  affinity  exists  to- 
day then  it  existed  in  the  igneous  period.  When  clay 
and  lime  in  measureless  quantities  went  from  the  world 
furnace,  as  sublimated  dust  or  fine  mist,  into  the  very 
region  of  oily  carbons,  and  if  the  latter  would  saturate 
these  particles  in  the  Ohio  River,  we  can  see  how  their 
combination  occurred  amid  annular  conditions. 

When  the  maker  of  artificial  gas  puts  carbon  into  his 
retort,  raises  the  heat,  he  soon  discovers  how  light 
hydro-carbon  gas  readily  escapes  with  a  moderate  heat, 
and  to  enrich  this  escaping  fuel  he  soon  tightens  down 
the  valve  and  injects  watery  vapor  into  the  retort.  This 
not  only  enriches  his  illuminant,  but  greatly  increases 
the  amount  of  it.  Thus  we  still  further  familiarize  our- 
selves with  the  deportment  of  the  hydro-carbons.  We 
learn  that  if  watery  vapor  improves  the  quality  and  in- 
creases the  quantity  of  forming  hydro-carbons  in  an 
artificial  furnace,  it  would  do  the  same  thing  in  the  fires 
of  the  molten  earth. 

When  the  newly-formed  hydro-carbons  arose  to  the 
skies  they  mingled  with  the  steaming  waters  formed  in 
the  same  fires.  They  not  only  grew  more  oily  by  chem- 
ical union,  but  the  quantity  was  vastly  increased,  and 
these  oily  compounds  in  turn  mingled  and  mixed  me- 
chanically with  the  fiery  mist  and  dust  about  them,  and 
when  these  mechanical  mixtures  returned  to  the  earth's 
crust  again  they  became  in  course  of  time  oil-bearing 
rock,  just  such  as  is  now  found  in  the  bed  of  the  Ohio 
river. 

Any  one  can  see  the  necessary  deductions  from  these 
experiments  and  practical  lessons.  We  know  that  there 
is  oil-bearing  rock  in  the  crust  of  the  earth,  and  we 


342  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

know  that  its  quality  and  its  quantity  and  its  position 
forever  exclude  the  animal  and  the  plant  from  having 
any  more  part  in  its  formation  than  they  now  have  to- 
day, and  no  one  that  has  a  particle  of  regard  for  testi- 
mony will  attempt  to  confer  the  grand  offices  of  world- 
making  upon  them  now. 

As  I  write  these  lines  there  are  ten  thousand  wells  in 
the  United  States,  each  pouring  forth  from  ten  to  ten 
hundred  barrels  of  oil  per  day,  and  in  some  places  there 
are  from  five  to  ten  flowing  wells  on  an  acre  of  ground, 
and  the  very  thought  that  organic  matter  gave  this  won- 
drous hoard  is  too  wantonly  silly  to  enter  so  pure  a 
realm  as  that  of  human  reason.  Then,  too,  those  other 
amazing  oil  fields  of  the  old  world !  All  this — and  yet 
the  amount  now  in  view  is  but  a  trifle  compared  with 
that  hidden  away  in  lands  where  the  drill  has  not  ven- 
tured. Amid  the  tropic  jungles,  under  seas  and  oceans, 
in  lands  eternally  locked  in  ice  and  snow,  the  same  fire- 
formed  rocks  are  filled  with  this  fire-formed  fuel. 

The  intelligent  gas  maker  very  well  knows  that  the 
union  of  hot  carbon  with  the  elements  of  steam  super- 
heated, makes  a  fuel  when  locked  away  from  the  attacks 
of  atmospheric  oxygen,  and  that  the  amount  of  this  fuel 
depends  upon  the  amount  of  carbon  and  steam.  Then, 
too,  the  well-known  fact  that  this  fuel  was  not  consumed 
in  its  infancy  is  all  the  proof  we  need  that  the  oxygen 
of  the  primitive  earth  found  more  active  affinities  in 
other  elements,  so  that  the  original  hydro-carbons  were 
locked  away  from  its  ravages. 

The  scientist  knows  how  the  oxygen  must  be  shut  off 
from  his  retort  in  order  to  form  an  illuminant,  or  fuel, 
and  consequently  this  question  faces  the  old  school: 
How  was  the  oxygen  barred  from  the  vegetable  car- 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  343 

bon  ?  How  did  the  organism  decay  in  the  silurian  age 
and  escape  utter  combustion  any  more  than  it  does  to- 
day? 

Did  the  reader  ever  see  how  spontaneous  combustion 
has  consumed  the  piles  of  "  slack  "  at  the  openings  of 
coal  mines  ?    Did  he  ever  hear  of  the  many  disastrous 
fires  occasioned  by  spontaneous  combustion  in  coal  piles 
and  even  piles  of  soot?     Oxygen  is   accountable  for 
these  fires,  and  if  it  does  such  things  now,  after  the  fuel 
is  formed  and  locked  up,  why  did  it  not  attend  to  its 
offices  and  complete  its  work  when  it  had  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  do  so?    When  a  plant   or   animal   dies  how 
often  is  it  sealed  away,  as  in  a  retort,  in  order  to  escape 
the  devourer  and  become  a  fuel  ?    This  uncertainty  di- 
minishes the  opportunity  to  form  gas  and  oil  rock  a 
thousand  fold;  and,  as  I  see  it,  precious  little  of  it  was 
ever  formed  as  the  old  school  claims.     Then,  again,  in 
the  transition  from  the  oil  form  to  the  bitumen  or 
asphaltic  compounds  and  fireproof  graphite,  how  did  it 
escape  combustion  ?    I  see  no  possible  escape  from  the 
conclusion  that  the  fires  of  the  igneous  earth  formed  all 
the  hydro-carbons,  sent  them  to  the  terrestrial  heavens 
and  let  them  down  in  world  order  and  covered  them  up 
as  centuries  rolled  by.    In  the  world's  retort  was  a  vast 
ocean  of  superheated  steam,  as  well  as  an  unlimited  fund 
of  carbon,  and  if  they  did  not  form  a  fuel,  as  the  fires  of 
to-day  form  smoke  and  soot,  then  law  did  not  operate. 
The  order  of  these  carbons,  as  they  occupy  their  places 
in  the  super-crust,  is  an  everlasting  support  of  the  new 
theory,  and  scientists  may  as  well  concede  the  fact  now 
or  banish  the  thought  of  a  molten  earth,  which  they 
actually  do,  more  or  less,  when  they  advocate  the  claim 
that  petroleum  is  a  species  of  fish  oil.     Was  the  molten 


344  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

earth  incompetent  to  produce  the  oils  out  of  the  ma- 
terial so  abundantly  on  hand  at  that  time  ?  Why,  the 
molten  earth  could  not  have  made  plant  food  without 
making  fuel!  They  are  inevitable  associates  now,  and 
they  must  have  been  fire-born  companions  then.  Plant 
food,  which  made  it  possible  for  vegetation  to  exist,  was 
a  collateral  product  of  the  same  crucible  that  formed 
the  oceans  and  the  fuel  of  the  world,  and  it  is  just  as 
reasonable  to  claim  that  the  plant  formed  all  the  waters 
of  the  earth  as  all  the  fuel.  The  animal  and  the  plant 
are  survival  products  of  survival  forces  in  this  world 
scheme  of  fuel  forming,  and  all  they  ever  did  or  could 
do  in  the  way  of  fuel  forming  must  be  a  survival 
product. 

Knowing,  then,  that  the  first  office  of  the  world-fires 
was  the  formation  of  vast  oceans  of  watery  vapors,  filled 
with  all  the  mineral  sublimations  that  heat  could  expel 
from  the  globe  to  the  skies,  and  that  chief  among  these 
fiery  distillates  were  oily  hydro-carbons,  we  cannot 
avoid  the  conclusion  that  these  must  be  found  on  and 
within  the  earth's  crust.  Knowing  that  the  oily  com- 
pounds went  into  the  skies  and  formed  a  part  of  the 
earth's  annular  system,  we  ought  to  find  oil-bearing 
rock  of  different  ages  and  at  different  depths  from  the 
surface.  Reason  ought  to  lead  the  thinker  to  conclude 
that  the  oil-bearing  rocks  and  the  coal-bearing  rocks 
would  be  one  and  the  same — all  together,  if  vegetation 
gave  them  origin.  What,  then,  must  we  conclude  when 
we  find  that  such  is  not  the  case  ?  The  annular  student 
expects  to  find  them  in  annular  order,  and  when  he 
finds  them  thus  arranged  in  the  earth's  crust  he  will- 
ingly leaves  the  problem  in  other  hands,  for  the  evolu- 
tion of  truth  will  show  who  is  right. 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  345 

Oily  products  sent  up  by  moderate  heat  from  the 
great  world-maker's  retort  arose  much  higher  in  the 
primeval  atmosphere  than  those  which  were  expelled 
with  raging  and  excessive  heat.  The  heaviest  and  most 
refractory  carbon  would  ride  lowest  and  the  lightest 
would  ride  highest  in  the  great  ocean  of  fiery  sublima- 
tions, and  in  the  inevitable  formation  of  world-rings 
these  carbon  forms,  mixing  with  their  natural  associates, 
would  find  their  level  in  the  annular  system  and  main- 
tain it  in  all  time.  Those  in  the  lowest  rings  would  fall 
first,  and  as  a  pure  result  they  would  take  up  their  final 
rest  amid  the  older  rocks.  Those  in  the  higher  rings 
would  fall  later  and  become  locked  up  in  the  later- 
formed  beds,  and  oil  should  be  found  on  all  continents. 

Now,  what  are  the  well-known  facts  in  the  case  ?  Oil 
found  on  all  continents — we  might  say  in  almost  every 
land — and  new  oil  fields  being  continually  opened,  leads 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  everywhere.  Its  extent  is  so 
great  at  least  as  to  stultify  all  claims  that  it  could  be  of 
organic  origin.  Then,  again,  when  we  reflect  that  the 
hydro-carbons,  like  all  other  primitive  heat  products, 
fell  to  the  earth  from  about  the  polar  skies,  we  would 
expect  to  find  oil  fields  under  the  frozen  circles;  and  if 
half  the  reports  from  those  frozen  climes  be  true,  this 
point  is  also  settled.  And  considering  how  readily 
ocean  currents  can  transport  such  matter  toward  the 
equator,  we  would  look  to  see  equatorial  beds  well  filled 
with  hydro-carbons,  and  such  pitch  lakes  as  are  found 
near  the  equator  are  witnesses  in  court.  Then,  too,  we 
find  the  greatest  oil  beds  of  the  world  away  below  the 
coal  beds.  The  Trenton  lime  rock,  from  which  such  a 
vast  amount  of  oil  now  comes  in  the  United  States,  is 
located  away  down  amid  the  silurian  beds,  among  strata 


346  Tht  Earth's  Annular  System. 

that  are  in  no  way  remarkable  for  their  organic  re- 
mains. 

The  formation  of  oily  compounds  must  have  taken 
place  to  some  extent  in  the  lofty  primeval  atmosphere, 
wherever  glowing  carbon  came  in  contact  with  super- 
heated steam,  which  must  have  existed  in  all  parts  of 
the  earth's  primitive  envelope.  In  the  same  region 
where  these  changes  were  going  on  the  appetite  of  oxy- 
gen for  calcium,  potassium,  sodium,  iron,  etc.,  so 
largely  robbed  the  carbon  of  its  natural  share  of  oxygen 
that  the  former  as  a  pure  result  was  left  as  an  uncon- 
sumed  fuel,  and  as  I  see  it  this  is  just  the  reason  we 
have  so  much  unburnt  carbon  in  the  earth,  and  I  can  see 
no  other  way  to  account  for  the  fact  that  oxygen,  ever 
alert  and  active,  did  not  consume  every  atom  of  carbon 
in  the  earth.  If  the  carbon  had  come  in  contact  with 
free  oxygen,  as  it  does  to-day  in  the  atmosphere,  there 
would  now  be  no  coal  or  petroleum  to  tell  the  tale,  and 
the  old-school  geologist  might  continue  to  rule  the 
world. 

The  vigor  of  free  oxygen  is  shown  all  the  time  wher- 
ever smoke  or  unburnt  carbon  rises  from  our  chimneys. 
The  blackest  and  densest  cloud  of  smoke  from  a  locomo- 
tive or  steamboat  in  a  very  little  while  entirely  disap- 
pears. What  becomes  of  it?  Free  oxygen  has  de- 
creased it  just  as  all  through  the  ages  gone  it  devoured 
the  carbon  left  from  decomposing  organic  matter. 

While  it  is  utter  folly  to  look  to  the  mollusks,  polyps 
and  fishes  of  the  silurian  age  as  sources  of  oil,  one  nat- 
urally asks,  how  could  the  smoke  arising  from  a  molten 
world,  as  it  lodged  amid  its  mineral  vapors  and  was  car- 
ried back  to  the  earth  and  buried  as  soot  a  thousand  or 
two  thousand  feet  in  the  crust,  not  be  made  to  yield  oil 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  347 

and  gas  ?  I  presume  if  all  the  smoke  arising  to-day 
from  thousands  of  locomotives  could  be  shut  away  from 
the  atmosphere  and  put  under  as  great  a  pressure  as  is 
now  put  upon  the  carbon  of  the  Trenton  beds,  it  could 
be  made  a  source  of  both  oil  and  gas. 

Let  us  now  apply  the  annular  theory  in  the  case  of 
the  Trenton  rock.  It  is  a  good  test.  The  lime  which 
gives  a  prevailing  character  to  the  bed  over  so  great  a 
part  of  the  United  States,  like  the  calcareous  matter  of 
the  cretaceous  beds,  never  came  from  pre-existing  beds. 
To  say  that  it  is  an  ancient  organic  deposit  is  supercil- 
ious. The  polyp  and  mollusk  might  have  deposited 
every  atom  of  it,  but  they  never  made  an  atom  of  it. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  lime  made  the  polyp  and  the 
mollusk,  and  we  are  forced  to  look  to  the  mineral  exha- 
lations of  the  infant  earth  for  it.  There  we  find  it — a 
vast  cloud  of  calcareous  matter  floating  at  its  own 
proper  level  in  the  world's  great  envelope.  As  it  was 
fire-formed  in  a  molten  earth,  measureless  quantities  of 
smoky,  sooty,  oily  carbon  mingled  with  it.  If  not, 
why?  A  world  constituted  as  this  is  could  not  be  in  a 
state  of  igneous  fluidity  and  not  send  smoky  exhalations 
to  the  skies;  and  the  fact  must  be  conceded  that  they 
floated  somewhere  amid  the  mineral  mist  of  the  evolv- 
ing planet — better  in  the  Trenton  matter  than  else- 
where, for  there  we  find  it  to-day.  From  the  very  na- 
ture of  the  Trenton  matter  it  became  a  vehicle  for  the 
rising  carbon  from  its  volcanic  birth.  The  same  fires 
gave  birth  to  the  lime  and  the  hydro-carbons,  and  as  the 
crystal  assumes  its  form  and  place,  and  the  plant  its 
habitat,  the  Trenton  matter  and  its  carbon,  in  order  and 
harmony,  dwelt  in  the  great  ring-family.  Ages  rolled 
away;  our  ring  of  Trenton  dust,  steeped  in  oily  com- 


348  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

pounds,  gradually  sank  to  mother  earth,  until  it  reached 
the  outskirts  of  the  atmosphere  proper,  at  the  equator. 
There  balancing  in  mid-heaven,  perhaps  for  centuries, 
it  became  an  equatorial  belt,  as  all  rings  in  their  de- 
cline must  do.  As  a  matter  of  course  the  southern  part 
of  that  belt  was  drawn  more  largely  toward  the  South 
Pole,  while  its  northern  boundary  settled  more  rapidly 
and  largely  toward  the  arctic  region.  Thus  polar  lands 
and  polar  oceans  received  the  Trenton  and  its  load  of 
carbon  first.  From  these  lands  the  movement  was  out- 
ward upon  the  vast  deep,  and  the  moment  they  started 
on  their  journey  other  conditions  began  to  operate. 
Other  matter  came  in  contact  with  the  moving  matter. 
The  wreck  of  continents  was  mingling  with  the  wreck 
of  rings,  so  that  the  Trenton  deposit  was  made  to  vary 
greatly  in  different  parts,  making  it  difficult  of  recogni- 
tion in  some  parts  of  the  earth.  So  long  as  rivers  and 
ocean  currents  flow,  this  difference  in  the  same  deposit 
must  affect  wide  areas.  Were  this  not  the  case  I  pre- 
sume the  Trenton  rock  would  be  a  world-wide  deposit 
and  oil-bearing  in  all  lands. 

When  we  turn  to  this  deposit  in  the  United  States 
we  find  it  marvelously  rich  in  oil  in  places  and  quite 
barren  in  others.  This  fact  would  seem  strange,  on  the 
supposition  that  the  lime,  as  well  as  the  oil,  was  an  ani- 
mal production,  for  why  should  organisms  make  this 
vast  deposit  and  yet  confine  the  oil  to  spots  in  it  ?  On 
the  supposition  that  the  Trenton  matter  carried  its  oily 
carbon  from  the  skies,  it  must  have  given  up  some  of  it 
to  demanding  currents  which  was  carried  elsewhere. 
To  show  this  assorting  power  of  currents  we  need  only 
take  a  survey  of  the  Trenton  field: 

According  to  the  geologic  record,  as  all  will  admit, 


Oil)  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  349 

during  the  time  the  vast  Trenton  bed  was  forming  in 
the  ancient  sea,  all  but  the  oldest  and  most  elevated 
parts  of  North  America  were  submerged,  and  as  a  con- 
sequence it  extends  over  the  greatest  part  of  the  basin 
drained  by  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries,  and  I  pre- 
sume it  has  its  equivalents  in  all  other  lands  that  then 
were  submerged  in  waters  communicating  with  the 
polar  regions,  north  and  south.  The  Appalachian  sys- 
tem was  then  unformed,  and  where  they  now  stand  were 
the  abyssal  depths  of  the  ocean.  In  that  ocean  there 
was  a  long  elevated  and  partly  submerged  region  ex- 
tending from  the  Canadian  highlands  to  those  of  east- 
ern continent.  Another  long  and  submerged  fold  ex- 
tended from  Canada  southward,  and  is  known  to-day  as 
the  Cincinnati  Arch.  This  submerged  arch  divided  the 
deep  waters  of  the  Atlantic  from  those  of  the  present 
Mississippi  Valley. 

Let  us  have  this  vast  body  of  water  in  mind  communi- 
cating with  the  North  Polar  Ocean,  through  such  chan- 
nels as  the  Baffin's  Bay  of  to-day.  Through  these  chan- 
nels poured  the  northern  waters  as  they  fell  from  the 
skies,  and  carried  whatever  loaded  them. 

In  latter  times,  and  yet  long  before  the  Appalachian 
ranges  were  heaved  from  the  sea,  along  these  great 
waterways  the  northworld  poured  its  vast  hoards  of 
bituminous  and  anthracitic  carbon  into  the  Atlantic. 
Antedating  all  this  the  Trenton  dust,  with  its  associated 
carbon,  had  fallen,  and  as  we  look  over  the  great  field 
we  can  trace  the  currents  that  carried  this  carbon  and 
deposited  it  in  favored  regions  of  the  sea  bottom.  Re- 
calling the  fact  that  different  degrees  of  heat  sent  car- 
bons of  different  specific  gravity  to  the  skies,  we 
recognize  how  the  heavier  oily  forms  floated  down 


350  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

into  the  depths  of  the  sea,  and  how  the  lighter,  assorted 
from  them  in  the  process  of  sedimentation,  floated  to 
higher  regions.  In  Western  Pennsylvania  and  East- 
ern Ohio,  in  the  great  depths  of  the  ancient  sea  bed, 
is  the  heavy  oily  carbon,  while  on  the  broad  top  of  the 
Cincinnati  Arch  the  lighter  forms  were  deposited.  This 
is  abundantly  attested  by  oil  wells  of  the  eastern  field, 
and  the  wonderful  gas  wells  in  the  western.  The  world 
has  long  noted  the  fact,  and  here  it  has  the  explanation, 
without  the  assumption  that  the  different  kinds  of  fish 
made  the  different  kinds  of  hydro-carbons. 

The  Cincinnati  Arch  was  a  shallow  in  the  Trenton 
ocean,  and  I  am  led  to  conclude  from  the  very  condi- 
tions here  shown  that  when  the  carbon  floated  down 
from  the  north  and  entered  the  old  Atlantic,  it  joined  a 
current  that  carried  it  westward  and  southwestward. 

It  would  seem  that  the  great  St.  Lawrence  Valley 
afforded  a  channel  for  such  a  current.  Admitting  this, 
I  find  many  things  confirming  it.  In  the  midst  of  such 
a  channel  no  carbon  would  be  dropped,  but  along  the 
sides  of  such  a  current  it  would  be  deposited,  and  the 
line  of  oil  or  gas  wells  in  New  York,  from  Fredonia 
westward,  and  the  occasional  well  on  the  north  side  of 
the  channel  in  Canada,  all  are  testimony  supporting  the 
claim  of  this  southwestward  oil  current.  No  oil  wells, 
so  far  as  I  know,  have  ever  been  found  in  the  middle  of 
this  old  channel,  and  I  presume  the  cities  of  Rochester, 
Buffalo,  Erie,  Cleveland,  Detroit  and  Chicago,  in  this 
old  course,  will  never  be  able  to  get  oil  or  gas. 

The  reader  will  understand  how  a  wide  current  mov- 
ing westward  and  up  the  incline  of  the  Cincinnati  fold, 
would  drag  on  the  sea  bottom  and  carry  all  the  carbon 
away  from  it,  just  as  the  prevailing  winds  carry  the 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  351 

leaves  up  a  slope  and  deposit  them  in  depressions  on  the 
top  of  the  hill  or  upon  the  opposite  side.  So  the  great 
current  moving  westward  up  and  over  the  arch  must 
have  left  the  broad  eastern  slope  mostly  barren  of  oil, 
and  it  is  well  known  that  it  is  the  rarest  thing  to  strike 
oil  or  gas  in  that  region,  and  the  towns  of  Alliance, 
Massillon,  Akron,  Berea,  which  have  spent  so  much 
money  in  the  vain  attempt  to  find  oil  might  consult  the 
annular  theory  to  know  why.  The  moving  waters  car- 
ried the  sky-fallen  carbon  away  to  other  fields.  But 
where  shall  we  find  it  ?  Certainly  we  would  expect  to 
find  it  on  the  broad  top  of  the  arch  in  the  depressions 
and  valleys  that  run  over  and  along,  but  most  abund- 
antly on  the  western  slope  of  the  arch.  Of  course  all 
the  world  knows  what  a  remarkable  oil  and  gas  field 
both  these  regions  are.  The  great  "  Karg  well,"  at 
Findlay,  Ohio,  was  drilled  into  a  depression  on  the  very 
summit  of  the  arch,  and  a  large  number  of  wells  in  that 
vicinity,  and  also  at  Fostoria  and  other  places,  have 
made  that  region  one  of  the  most  renowned  oil  and  gas 
fields  known.  Farther  south  is  the  famous  oil  field  of 
Lima.  All  these  are  on  the  broad  fold  of  the  Cincin- 
nati Arch  and  on  its  western  slope. 

These  well-known  oil  fields  make  the  annular  student 
bold  to  further  hypothecate.  From  the  great  St.  Law- 
rence current  a  branch  current  seems  to  have  run 
south  into  Pennsylvania  and  the  Ohio  Valley.  In 
making  this  course  it  would  have  to  pass  over  a  long 
ridge  in  the  old  ocean,  running  from  southwestern  New 
York,  from  Chautauqua  Lake  southwestward,  and  when 
we  come  to  view  that  magnificent  if  not  peerless  oil 
field  of  the  Pittsburg  region,  on  the  southern  slope  of 
that  ridge,  we  are  still  more  inclined  to  think  this 


352  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

hypothesis  a  correct  one.  And  when  we  further  find 
two  lines  of  oil  wells  along  the  Ohio  Valley — one  on 
either  side  of  it — we  add  another  link  to  the  chain  of 
testimony.  And  yet  another  link  is  added  by  the  fact 
that  the  oil  wells  of  this  valley  are  mostly  located  on 
the  southern  slope  of  the  Ohio  hills.  I  have  found  this 
to  be  the  case  so  often  that  in  consultation  with  oil  seek- 
ers I  have  always  advised  boring  in  a  region  sloping 
southward  or  southwestward  and  have  been  gratified  to 
realize  success,  while  I  have  seldom  known  success  else- 
where in  the  Ohio  Valley  region. 

The  question  may  now  be  asked,  Why  do  oil  fields 
run  in  lines?  Oil  men  and  geologists  know  very  well 
that  this  is  a  peculiar  fact.  They  first  get  the  direction 
or  trend  of  an  oil  field  and  then  drill  succeeding  wells 
along  that  course,  and  even  locate  "  side  lines "  or 
branches  and  follow  these  in  course.  Those  were  pecu- 
liar fishes  that  died  and  decayed  by  line  and  plummet. 

The  great  St.  Lawrence  current  ran  across  the  north- 
west corner  of  Ohio,  along  southern  Michigan,  and  it  is 
not  a  little  strange  that  in  passing  northward  from  the 
Findlay  gas  region  we  come  into  a  region  utterly  bar- 
ren of  oil  and  gas.  Plainly  we  cross  the  middle  of  the 
old  current's  track,  in  which  no  oil  wells  will  likely  ever 
be  found.  Farther  north,  toward  central  Michigan,  the 
north  line  of  the  current  may  be  found.  Time  will  de- 
cide the  case. 

When  we  comprehend  the  fact  that  thousands  of  oil 
and  gas  wells  are  yielding  millions  of  barrels  of  oil  and 
countless  millions  cubic  feet  of  gas,  year  after  year, 
until  generations  pass  and  leave  them  to  their  children, 
we  are  forced  to  marvel  that  vegetarians  still  enjoy  the 
majestic  scene. 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  353 

"Why  is  the  Trenton  bed  so  barren  of  oil  all  along  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Cincinnati  fold?  Why  a  field  so 
amazingly  rich  on  its  broad  summit  and  western  slope  ? 
What  kind  of  fish  and  crustaceans  could  those  ancient 
oil-  and  gas-makers  have  been  any  way  ? 

And  now  a  little  history,  however  it  may  show  the 
egotism  of  the  writer.  It  is  not  difficult  to  recall  the  oil 
excitement  in  the  seventies  and  eighties — how  thou- 
sands of  men  with  millions  of  money  ran  wild  in  an 
effort  to  discover  new  oil  fields.  The  author  of  the  an- 
nular theory  and  a  few  of  its  advocates  urged  moneyed 
men  to  drill  into  the  Trenton  rock  for  the  hoard  it  held. 
The  vast  fund  of  carbon  below  it  in  the  older  beds 
stoutly  affirmed  that  a  lighter  oily  carbon  must  be  lo- 
cated above  the  heavy  graphitic  carbons.  But  geolo- 
gists everywhere,  I  believe,  discouraged  the  attempt 
and  denounced  the  claim.  Failure  to  find  oil  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Cincinnati  anticlinal  confirmed 
them,  and  it  was  not  until  about  the  year  1885  that  a 
few  prospectors  ventured  to  bore  on  the  top  of  the  arch 
in  northwestern  Ohio.  I  remember  how  our  opposers 
called  us  "  crazy,"  "  cranks,"  etc.,  and  how  it  was  an- 
nounced from  official  position  that  "  No  oil  can  be 
found  in  the  Trenton  and  no  gas  beyond  the  Maumee 
River."  But  the  drill  was  put  to  work  almost  on  the 
very  summit  of  the  "  arch  "  and  kept  to  work  under 
discouraging  conditions  until  gas  gushed  from  the  well 
with  terrific  force.  The  history  of  that  "  mighty 
gusher  "  is  well  known,  and  I  have  no  room  for  it  here. 
One  year  from  that  time  the  town  of  Findlay  began  to 
put  on  city  habiliments,  and  resolved  to  have  an  anni- 
versary in  commemoration  of  her  "  Application  of  Nat- 
ural Gas  to  the  Mechanical  Arts."  A  gas  carnival  and 


354  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

banquet  was  held  in  the  young  city,  and  it  was  esti- 
mated that  fifty  thousand  people  assembled  to  hear  the 
orator  of  the  day,  the  great  "  Karg  well,"  whose  mouth 
was  opened  in  defence  of  the  annular  theory,  and  the 
very  earth  trembled  as  it  spoke.  The  Ohio  State  geolo- 
gist was  invited  to  be  there  and  tell  why  gas  "  could 
not  be  found  in  the  Trenton  nor  beyond  the  Maumee." 
The  author  of  the  annular  theory  was  invited  to  attend 
and  tell  why  that  bed  was  filled  in  places  with  oily 
hydro-carbons  and  gas.  The  former  was  not  there,  but 
the  latter  was  present  and  spoke  according  to  program. 
It  was  the  proudest  moment  of  his  life  when  he  finished 
his  lecture,  and  the  "  Karg  "  closed  the  midnight  ban- 
quet with  its  terrific  roar  of  approval. 

In  that  lecture  the  speaker  made  some  predictions, 
which  have  been  fulfilled,  and  here  they  are : 

"  I  tell  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  great  Karg 
gusher  is  not  the  last  one  to  be  found  in  this  field.  West 
of  Findlay,  to  the  very  bounds  of  the  State,  and  on  into 
Indiana  and  perhaps  Illinois,  the  western  slope  of  the 
Cincinnati  fold  extends,  and  it  is  laden — it  must  be 
laden — with  oil  and  gas. 

"  On  the  northern  borders  of  the  State,  and  in  south- 
ern Michigan,  was  about  the  center  of  the  great  St. 
Lawrence  current.  You  need  not  drill  for  oil  in  that 
region.  All  the  hydro-carbon  was  carried  away  by  the 
rapid  waters. 

"  The  branch  current  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  upon  meet- 
ing the  deep  sea  in  that  region,  west  of  the  arch,  would 
have  its  motion  checked,  and  perhaps  an  eddy  was 
formed  where  now  is  southern  Indiana,  and  I  pre- 
dict that  a  great  oil  field  will  be  developed  there." 

As  these  predictions  were  made  long  before  the  In- 


Oil,  Gas  and  Other  Carbons.  355 

diana  oil  fields  were  heard  of — before  it  was  discovered 
that  there  was  a  barren  line  running  from  Lake  Erie  on 
the  southern  boundary  of  Michigan — they  become  in- 
teresting links  of  annular  testimony. 

This  little  episode  might  close  this  chapter,  but 
I  have  before  me  the  vast  oil  regions  of  the  East- 
ern Continent,  from  whose  beds  the  oily  floods  have 
been  pouring  and  burning  as  sacred  fires  since  the 
night-time  of  history.  Who  can  estimate  the  vast  sea 
that  has  been  escaping  from  away  back  in  the  ages? 
China,  Japan,  Persia,  Russia,  North  and  South  America 
each  pours  a  river  of  oil  into  the  world's  trade  and  I  pre- 
sume will  do  so  for  centuries  to  come,  and  when  the 
known  oil  regions  fail  we  may  boast  that  other  and 
vaster  fields  remain  untouched — and  must  I  believe  that 
the  fish  and  mollusk  made  all  this  ?  Are  they  making  oil 
to-day?  If  so,  where?  If  not,  why  then  and  not  now? 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

CONCLUSIVE    EVIDENCE    OF    ANNULAB    DOWNFALLS    IN    THE 
TEBTIABY  OCEAN  OF  THE  NORTHERN  HEMISPHERE. 

Over  an  extensive  portion  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
region  the  tertiary  beds,  as  might  be  expected,  are 
fresh  water  deposits.  During  the  cretaceous  age,  as  is 
well  known,  this  vast  area  was  covered  by  the  sea,  and 
these  waters  had  communication  on  the  north  with  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  probably  by  way  of  the  present  depres- 
sion in  British  America,  along  the  valley  of  the  Macken- 
zie River ;  while  on  the  south  it  communicated  with  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  or  other  southern  waters,  by  way  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  Valley.  Thus  a  wide  channel  or  strait 
passing  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  fed  the  waters  of  the 
great  cretaceous  sea  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and 
through  this  sea  had  direct  communication  with  salt 
waters  of  the  south. 

Now,  if  my  claim  be  a  valid  one  the  beds  in  the 
Rocky  Mountain  tertiary  will  present  the  following  fea- 
tures: The  cretaceous  period  having  been  brought  to 
a  close  by  a  down-rush  of  waters  and  snows  in  the 
Northern  Hemisphere,  a  stream  of  water  pouring 
southward  through  the  above  named  channel  must  to 
a  great  extent  have  been  a  fresh-water  current;  and 
those  deposits  in  the  extreme  northern  beds  in  the  area 
under  consideration  must  be  in  a  great  measure  fresh- 
water accumulations.  Those  in  the  middle  part  of  this 
region  must  be  fresh  beds  to  a  less  extent,  perhaps 
sometimes  marine  and  sometimes  entirely  fresh,  owing 
to  changes  in  currents,  etc.,  and  here  fresh-water  and 


Conclusive  Evidence.  357 

marine  species  will  be  commingled.  While  in  the 
southern  part  the  beds  must  be  almost  exclusively  ma- 
rine. This  conclusion  I  came  to  long  before  I  examined 
the  records.  It  is  the  conclusion  which  any  one  fa- 
miliar with  the  manner  in  which  fresh-water  and  salt- 
water currents  of  the  seas  dispose  of  living  organisms 
will  come  to.  And  further,  we  will  reasonably  expect 
that  on  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  coasts,  where  tertiary 
beds  are  found  in  the  same  latitude,  and  where  the 
open  seas  have  access  to  the  shores,  marine  fossils  will 
prevail.  It  must  be  seen,  then,  that  these  conclusions 
are  based  upon  the  fact  that  a  stupendous  addition  to 
the  oceans  in  the  closing  cretaceous  came  via  the  chan- 
nels from  the  polar  sea.  l^ow  if  such  things  are  not  to 
be  found  our  theory  must  receive  a  stunning  blow.  Let 
the  reader  reflect  for  a  moment  on  the  philosophic  dis- 
tribution of  oceanic  life  under  such  promoting  causes; 
and  we  will  then  endeavor  to  learn  something  of  the 
character  of  the  tertiary  beds  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Dana  says :  *  "  The  general  distribution  of  the  ma- 
rine beds  is  similar  to  that  of  the  cretaceous  .  .  .the 
inner  limit  being  about  100  miles  from  the  Gulf  in  Ala- 
bama, 150  to  200  in  Texas,  and  along  the  Mississippi 
River  the  Gulf  border  extends  northward  to  southern 
Illinois."  Again,  "  the  fresh-water  or  lake  deposits  are, 
as  stated,  of  all  periods  from  the  middle  eocene  to  the 
pliocene,  the  eocene  occurring  about  Fort  Bridger,  the 
miocene  in  the  upper  Missouri  region."  "  It  occurs, 
also,  in  the  Big  Horn  region,  in  Chetish  Mountains, 
about  Fort  Union."  "  It  extends  far  north  into  British 
America,  and  south  to  Fort  Clark  and  beyond  to 
Texas."  And  now  mark  (italics  mine),  "  In  the  lower 

*  "  Manual,"  490  to  493. 


358  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

part,  on  Judith  River,  there  are  brackish  water  deposits, 
containing  shells  of  oysters  mingled  with  fresh-water 
shells." 

Again,  "  In  the  Rocky  Mountain  region  the  lignitic 
group  of  the  Green  River  basin,  near  Fort  Bridger, 
etc.,  consists  of  sandy  beds,  some  of  them  true  marine, 
more  of  them  having  a  commingling  of  fresh-water 
shells  with  marine,  which  indicates  very  shallow  brack- 
ish waters,  and  a  still  larger  part  strictly  fresh-water  in 
origin." 

Thus  there  were  conditions  by  which  brackish  water- 
beds  were  formed  in  the  southern  part  of  the  tertiary 
sea,  on  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  almost  exclusively 
fresh-water  strata  on  the  upper  Missouri.  While  in 
the  extreme  south,  as  in  Texas,  the  beds  are  wholly 
marine,  and  in  the  extreme  north  wholly  fresh-water. 
For  it  is  well  known  that  there  is  no  marine  tertiary  in 
the  latter.*  But  this  condition  was  strikingly  different 
from  that  which  immediately  preceded  it.  Says  Dana:f 
"  In  the  closing  part  of  the  cretaceous,  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  there  was  a  change  permanently  from  a  con- 
dition of  general  submergence  under  salt-water  to  one 
of  oscillation,"  etc. 

Thus  we  see  along  a  wide  strait  running  from  far 
north,  southward,  came  in  a  fund  of  waters  unsuited  to 
marine  life.  It  was  a  supply  of  fresh-water  that  was 
of  sufficient  volume  to  drive  marine  forms  southward! 
If  this  fresh-water  came  from  rivers,  where  did  they 
rise,  and  whither  did  they  flow?  Did  some  river  flow 
from  the  north,  or  from  the  east,  and  empty  into  a  sea 
forty  times  as  large  as  Lake  Erie,  making  its  northern 

*  See  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  488. 
t  Ibid.,  page  478. 


Conclusive  Evidence.  359 

part  fresh,  its  central  brackish  and  its  southern  ma- 
rine ?  It  is  not  likely.  So  vast  an  area  of  fresh-water 
formations  cannot  be  explained  by  lakes  or  lacustrine 
deposits.  It  is  evidently  the  work  of  a  vast  bay  fed  on 
one  side  by  a  fresh-water  ocean,  on  the  other  communi- 
cating with  the  salt  ocean. 

Here  is  a  distribution  of  fossils  that  gives  valuable 
support  to  the  claim  I  have  made.  A  new  fund  of 
fresh-water  came  in  at  the  beginning  of  the  eocene, 
when  its  waters  were  filled  with  marine  forms;  grad- 
ually but  surely  these  gave  way,  so  that  before  the 
formation  was  half  completed  fresh  waters  had  so 
gained  upon  the  marine  that  fresh-water  formations 
are  reckoned  from  the  middle  of  the  eocene.  Marine 
forms  are  pushed  southward  into  marine  waters,  while 
about  midway  between  the  two  extremes  the  fresh- 
water and  marine  are  so  commingled  as  to  be  sometimes 
fresh  and  sometimes  salt,  favoring  neither  true  marine 
nor  fresh-water  organisms.  Now  I  suppose  there  is  not 
a  geologist  living  who,  upon  examining  these  things, 
will  not  claim  that  the  fresh-water  came  from  the 
north ;  and  I  am  sure  he  will  not  claim  that  it  was  river- 
water. 

Now  what  means  this  peculiar  arrangement  of 
strata  ?  Could  they  be  more  emphatic  in  their  testi- 
mony to  the  truth  of  a  great  fresh-water  polar  sea  if 
they  had  been  intentionally  arranged  to  lend  it  sup- 
port? Suppose  the  tertiary  of  British  America  from 
the  United  States  border,  along  the  line  of  the  Macken- 
zie to  the  Arctic  Ocean  had  been  marine.  It  would 
have  been  a  crushing  evidence  against  the  annular  the- 
ory. But  we  are  not  yet  through  with  this  investiga- 
tion. Dana,  our  same  high  authority,  says :  "  The  ter- 


360  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

tiary  of  the  Pacific  coast  is  of  marine  origin,"  *  and  also 
that  the  marine  tertiary  covers  a  large  part  of  the  At- 
lantic border.  Doubtless  Davis  Strait  at  the  same  time 
poured  a  volume  of  fresh-water  from  the  polar  world 
directly  into  the  Atlantic  close  to  the  North  American 
coast,  just  as  the  channel  of  the  Mackenzie.  For  we 
find  the  same  commingling  of  marine  and  fresh-water 
fauna  on  the  New  England  coast,  while  in  the  north- 
ern part  the  shells  are  exclusively  fresh-water  species. 
We  are  not  at  liberty  to  call  these  river  and  estuary 
deposits,  for  all  the  estuary  and  river  deposits  farther 
south,  on  the  sea  border,  are  chiefly  marine. 

Along  the  coast,  from  Delaware  Bay  to  Florida,  and 
around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where  hundreds  of  rivers, 
including  the  Mississippi,  empty  wherever  the  tertiary 
beds  are  laid  down  they  are  not  considered  fresh-water 
beds.  Hence  the  utter  fallacy  of  the  claim  that  the  vast 
expanse  of  north  tertiary  beds  are  fresh-water  lake  de- 
posits, or  of  fluviatile  formation.  How  could  it  be  pos- 
sible that,  in  the  absence  of  important  rivers,  such  wide 
reaches  of  fresh-water  tertiary  could  have  the  origin 
claimed  by  geologists,  when  all  the  evidence  is  that  the 
mightiest  rivers  of  the  world  pouring  into  the  ocean 
have  failed  universally  to  make  such  ?  Now,  if  we  will 
just  conceive  that  the  vast  polar  ocean  of  the  tertiary 
period  was  a  body  of  fresh-water  all  mystery  ends. 

Thus,  on  the  California  coast  on  one  side  and  the 
New  Jersey  shore  on  the  other,  we  find  marine  beds  de- 
posited synchronically  with  the  fresh  water  deposits  of 
the  tertiary  sea  of  the  interior,  showing  that  in  these 
parts  of  the  earth,  where  the  open  sea  or  oceans  washed 
the  shores,  salt-water  prevailed.  But  here  were  lands 

*  "  Manual,"  page  492. 


Conclusive  Evidence.  361 

washed  by  river  streams !  Virginia  and  Maryland, 
skirted  by  marine  tertiary,  as  is  well  known,  had  rivers 
pouring  into  the  sea,  for  the  Appalachian  arches  had 
been  previously  formed.  Why  did  not  these  rivers 
cause  fresh-water  deposits,  or  at  least  brackish  beds? 
The  simple  fact  is,  that  the  very  tertiary  formations 
which  we  well  know  must  have  been  somewhat  under 
the  influence  of  river  water,  do  not  show  such  an  influ- 
ence, while  in  the  interior  tertiary  sea,  where,  so  far  as 
we  can  tell,  no  rivers  emptied,  the  whole  deposit,  from 
the  National  Park  to  the  Arctic  Sea,  is  a  fresh-water 
formation.  Hence  the  reasonable  conclusion  that  my 
claim  is  a  just  one.  That  so-called  lacustrine,  or  fresh- 
water deposits,  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  are  not 
necessarily  river-formed  beds,  nor  deposits  in  inland 
seas,  as  is  generally  claimed. 

But  the  picture  is  not  quite  complete.  Something  is 
needed  to  finish  the  triplicity  of  phenomena.  We  have 
had  the  "  plunge  bath,"  and  the  extermination  of  spe- 
cies, which  Dana  says  *  is  "  Remarkable  for  its  univer- 
sality and  thoroughness."  New  waters  were  poured 
into  the  oceans ;  therefore,  as  greater  mechanical  pres- 
sure necessarily  resulted,  and  consequent  increased  heat 
and  expansion  in  the  deep-seated  rocks  beneath  the 
ocean's  bed,  we  must  look  for  crust  folding  and  up- 
heaval. And  as  this  downfall  of  water  closing  the  cre- 
taceous period  was  a  stupendous  one,  and  the  extermi- 
nation "  universal  and  thorough,"  then  the  crumpling 
must  have  been  correspondingly  stupendous.  Now, 
what  do  we  find  ?  Early  in  the  tertiary  we  find  moun- 
tain making  on  every  continent — a  grand  world-wide 
disturbance  of  strata,  equaled  only  in  its  universality  by 

*  "  Manual,"  page  488. 


362  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

one  of  the  most  "  complete  exterminations  of  species  of 
which  there  is  record."  *  In  a  former  chapter  I  have 
shown  why  this  order  is  so  invariably  maintained. 

'  Now,  here  it  will  be  seen  that  all  these  phenomena 
combine  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  annular  the- 
ory. A  downfall  of  water  necessitates  accompanying 
snows  and  a  change  of  climate;  hence  the  world- wide 
extinction  of  life-forms  well-known  to  all  geologists,  and 
since  I  know  of  no  competent  cause  of  universal  strata- 
folding,  but  increased  mechanical  pressure  universally 
upon  the  ocean's  bed,  I  am  simply  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  cretaceous  period  was  closed  by  a  stu- 
pendous downfall  of  tellurio-cosmic  matter  upon  the 
earth. 

Now,  it  may  be  somewhat  interesting  to  look  a  little 
into  these  changes,  as  recorded  by  the  races  entombed 
in  the  debris  of  continents.  At  Jackson,  Miss.,  the 
eocene  beds  contain  numerous  marine  shells,  and  here 
have  also  been  found  the  giant  remains  of  the  zeu- 
glodon,  a  whale-like  inhabitant  of  the  cretaceous  seas. 
In  the  Green  River  basin  are  found  the  remains  of  fos- 
sil fish  belonging  to  the  cretaceous  waters  and  buried 
in  the  early  tertiary  beds;  also  mammalians  of  the  tapir 
family,  and  remains  of  the  dinoceros  and  uintatherium. 

While  on  the  Atlantic  border,  from  Martha's  Vine- 
yard to  southern  Virginia,  cretaceous  animals  in  great 
numbers  are  found  in  marl-pits  of  the  lower  tertiary. 
These  things  seem  to  confirm  the  claim  that  the  cre- 
taceous world  was  swept  by  a  mighty  cataclysmic  wave, 
and  that  its  animals  were  buried  in  the  detrital  mass 
swept  from  the  land  into  the  seas  and  which  formed  the 
lower  eocene  beds. 

*  Dana's  "  Manual,"  page  487. 


Conclusive  Evidence.  363 

So  nearly  are  the  lower  eocene  beds  related  to  the 
cretaceous  that  eminent  geologists  are  unable  to  agree 
as  to  whether  they  are  tertiary  or  earlier.  Dana  says: 
"  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  are  one  or  the  other." 
Both  Profs.  Cope  and  Marsh  discovered  in  eocene  beds 
remains  of  saurians,  related  to  the  dinosauri  and 
megalosauri,  which  are  known  to  have  been  cretaceous 
forms.  Thus  so  far .  we  see  that  the  "  American 
Record  "  shows  that  new  waters  brought  in  a  new  en- 
vironment, involving  a  general  destruction  of  creta- 
ceous forms,  and  buried  them  in  the  debris  of  the  cre- 
taceous world,  carried  in  a  great  revulsion  to  the  seas, 
which  became  the  lower  tertiary  beds — actual  transi- 
tion beds;  hence  the  difficulty  in  assigning  it  its  true 
place  in  the  series. 

Again,  when  we  turn  to  the  foreign  tertiary  we  find 
the  same  general  conditions  prevailing;  especially  after 
the  eocene,  or  first  tertiary,  there  is  a  general  preva- 
lence of  fresh-water  beds  over  a  large  part  of  Europe. 
Let  us  briefly  examine  these  things  and  see  how  they 
bear  upon  a  fresh-water  ocean. 

In  a  recent  lecture  by  Boyd  Dawkins,  the  English 
geologist,  while  speaking  of  the  former  conditions  of 
the  earth, in  more  modern  geological  times, he  said:  "  In 
the  eocene  and  miocene  periods  Europe  was  united  with 
Iceland  and  Greenland,  and  also  with  the  United  States 
of  America,  by  a  barrier  of  land  extending  past  the 
Faroe  Isles,  which  was  covered  by  a  dense  forest,  com- 
posed to  a  large  extent  of  the  same  trees  as  in  Europe 
and  in  America,  and  which  allowed  of  a  comparatively 
free  migration  of  animals  to  and  fro  between  England 
and  the  United  States." 

I  suppose  the  conclusion  was  drawn  from  the  simi- 


364  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

larity  of  the  fauna  on  the  two  continents — the  reptiles 
and  the  fishes  that  formerly  inhabited  the  streams  and 
lakes  of  both  continents.  Now,  while  I  am  free  to  ad- 
mit the  existence  of  land  communication  between 
Europe  and  America  by  way  of  that  great  submarine 
plateau,  I  am  not  able  to  draw  the  same  conclusion 
from  the  evidence,  since  I  cannot  see  why  land  com- 
munication is  necessary  for  fishes  and  alligators  to  pass 
from  one  continent  to  another,  unless  a  fresh-water 
channel  or  river  ran  from  one  extremity  of  the  plateau 
to  the  other. 

But  if  we  now  admit,  as  I  have  before  urged  the 
necessary  fact,  that  the  incessant  fall  of  exterior  vapors 
in  the  northern  ocean — the  measureless  fund  of  snows 
deposited  and  melted  in  its  waters — produced  a  great 
fresh-water  ocean,  that  involved  the  north  polar  world; 
and  that,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  channels  that  con- 
nected with  southern  waters,  it  washed  a  continuous 
barrier  that  encircled  the  earth,  the  explanation  be- 
comes easy.  It  is  claimed  that  during  the  miocene 
period  the  climate  was  tropical,  even  where  now  the 
winters  are  severe.  Suppose,  then,  that  during  the 
miocene,  or  earlier  in  the  tertiary  period,  the  Macken- 
zie flowed  as  it  now  does,  and  was  inhabited  by  fishes 
and  other  animals  of  a  tropical  climate,  and  that  other 
rivers  ran  from  the  great  plateau  northward  into  the 
same  sea,  just  as  the  rivers  of  northern  Europe  and 
Siberia  do  to-day  (and  it  would  be  impossible  that  such 
streams  should  not  exist),  it  can  be  readily  seen,  accord- 
ing to  this  hypothesis,  how  the  same  fauna  that  charac- 
terized the  land  of  the  Mackenzie  would  characterize 
the  entire  land  belt  of  North  America,  Europe  and 
Asia. 


Conclusive  Evidence.  365 

These  continents  were  all  washed  by  the  same  north 
sea.  They  all  poured  mighty  rivers  into  the  same. 
And  the  waters  of  such  a  sea  were  fresh  under  the  same 
laws  that  to-day  make  Lake  Superior  a  fresh-water  sea. 
There  would  be  very  natural  facility  for  an  intermin- 
gling of  species,  and  I  presume  such  means  are  much 
more  reasonable  than  to  suppose  a  great  isthmus  of 
land,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  there  were  likely 
straits  connecting  this  north  ocean  with  the  waters  of 
the  Atlantic,  since  in  a  part  of  the  tertiary  times  fresh- 
water and  brackish-water  fauna,  driven  from  the  north, 
inhabited  New  England  seas,  and  many  mammalian 
land  animals  are  of  different  species.  The  mammoth  of 
Europe  and  Asia  was  different  from  the  American;  but 
the  hypothesis  of  a  fresh-water  ocean  does  not  rest  alone 
on  this  kind  of  evidence.  The  widespread  fresh  waters 
of  the  tertiary  period  do  not  apparently  admit  of  any 
other  hypothesis.  One-third  of  North  America,  a  great 
part  of  north  Europe,  and  very  nearly  all  of  Siberia, 
and  much  of  China  and  other  parts  of  Asia,  were  appar- 
ently synchronously  submerged  beneath  fresh  waters. 
And  it  certainly  would  not  be  too  strong  language  for 
me  to  say  they  were  submerged  by  the  north  polar 
ocean. 

Geologists  have  long  claimed  that  the  great  fresh- 
water beds  of  tertiary  Europe  were  made  by  great 
rivers,  running  south  or  southeastwardly  from  a  north- 
ern or  northwestern  continent.  What,  then,  deposited 
the  tertiary  beds  of  Siberia  and  North  America?  If 
this  claim  be  true,  what  are  now  the  continents  were 
then  the  oceans.  But  the  evidence  is  accumulative  that 
an  elevated  arch  of  land,  once  formed  in  the  evolution 
of  continents,  always  remained  an  arch ;  and  we  have  no 


366  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

evidence  that  such  ever  became  a  trough  of  the  ocean. 
Besides,  the  geological  record  of  the  tertiary  itself  does 
not  corroborate  this  view.  The  filled  up  estuaries  show 
that  the  same  rivers  ran  into  the  northern  ocean  that 
now  empty  into  it,  only  at  a  higher  level,  and  the  fos- 
sils of  alligators  and  other  inhabitants  of  rivers  show 
that  the  land  was  only  partially  submerged.  If  the 
rivers  ran  in  the  opposite  direction  analogy  would  show 
that  these  great  fresh-water  beds  could  not  have  been 
such  as  they  are — so  exclusively  fresh-water  deposits. 
It  seems  to  me,  as  we  look  over  the  vast  field,  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  be  convinced  that  a  great  fresh-water 
ocean  rolled  its  billows  over  the  so-called  estuary  beds 
of  northern  Europe,  Asia  and  parts  of  North  America. 
It  seems  like  reversing  natural  tendencies  to  conclude 
otherwise,  and  I  am  sure  when  the  sober  calculation  of 
man  is  brought  to  bear  upon  this  great  question  it  must 
gravitate  into  the  line  I  have  here  indicated.  With  this 
thought  before  us  a  hundred  mysteries  are  explained. 
The  fresh-water  beds  of  Norway  and  northern  Russia, 
those  of  England  and  Scotland,  can  then  be  explained; 
for  being  identical  in  many  respects  with  those  of 
France,  that  they  have  all  been  supplied  by  the  same 
northwestern  continent,  would  seem  unreasonable  if  not 
impossible. 

But  now,  with  all  the  evidence  of  a  downfall  of 
vapors,  as  shown  in  North  American  tertiary  beds — in 
the  grand  slaughter  of  living  forms  and  the  folding  of 
strata,  with  all  the  evidence  of  a  nearly  isolated  ocean 
as  against  the  evidence  of  a  northwestern  continent  in 
the  formation  of  beds  on  three  vast  continents,  let  the 
reader  say  which  is  more  in  accord  with  law  in  the  evo- 
lution of  the  earth.  If  we  leave  the  continents  stand- 


Conclusive  Evidence.  367 

ing,  with  their  outlines  somewhat  contracted  by  neces- 
sary submergence,  with  the  same  drainage  system  they 
now  possess,  and  still  further  admit  the  necessary  fresh- 
water ocean  to  account  for  the  rock-recorded  history,  I 
believe  the  interpretation  becomes  plain. 

But  what  does  this  great  ocean  of  fresh  water  prove  ? 
Does  it  not  point  with  almost  positive  conclusiveness 
to  an  augmentation  of  snows  from  the  great  super-aerial 
fund?  Have  we  not  almost  positive  testimony  in 
abundance  that  the  cretaceous  age  just  closed  was 
ended  by  excessive  and  universal  refrigeration?  That 
the  transported  blocks  of  stone  found  in  the  upper  cre- 
taceous and  lower  tertiary  point  to  a  northern  origin? 
These  things  being  apparently  true,  we  are  again  forced 
to  admit  that  in  addition  to  the  reasonableness  of  such 
a  conclusion  the  evidence  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of 
an  annular  fall  of  waters  in  the  north  polar  world  as 
the  sole  cause  of  the  transition  from  the  cretaceous  to 
the  tertiary. 

Let  the  reader  now  draw  somewhat  on  his  imagina- 
tion. It  is  well-known  that  all  the  existing  continents 
were  largely  submerged  under  cretaceous  waters.  The 
Rocky  Mountains,  the  Andes,  the  Alps  and  the  Hima- 
layas, were  either  unborn  or  in  their  infant  stages.  It 
was  a  universal  ocean  of  calcareo-saline  water.  Then  it 
is  evident  that  some  mighty  barrier  was  reared  by  some 
resistless  force  that  rolled  the  cretaceous  waves  south- 
ward and  made  an  isolated  fresh-water  ocean  in  the 
north.  But  here  is  our  hypothetical  barrier,  the  great 
Atlantic  plateau,  reaching  from  the  coast  of  Newfound- 
land to  Ireland,  and  known  by  actual  soundings  and 
other  evidence  to  be  a  table-land  submerged.  It  was 
raised  from  the  deep,  according  to  the  record,  at  this 


368  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

very  time  and  stood  for  uncounted  millenniums  as  dry 
land.  That  is,  we  have  an  actual  barrier  at  the  very 
time  the  fresh-water  ocean  was  formed.  We  have  the 
three-fold  phenomena  of  new  waters  from  on  high,  wide 
extermination  and  plication  of  strata.  As  I  have  be- 
fore said,  there  is  enough  water  on  the  earth's  surface 
to-day  to  make  one  thousand  terrific  cataclysms,  each  of 
which  would  cover  the  whole  earth  fifteen  feet  deep 
with  water.  Suppose  now  a  fall  of  snow  in  the  north- 
ern regions  sufficient  to  spread  that  amount  of  water 
over  the  earth  packed  into  glacier  ice.  The  actual  me- 
chanical pressure,  incalculable  and  inconceivable,  aris- 
ing from  such  an  additional  amount  of  exotic  matter  in 
the  polar  world,  forcing  the  lower  rock-beds  into  a  con- 
dition of  plasticity,  must  have  had  every  pound  thereof 
conserved  in  crust  upthrowal. 

A  vast  mass  of  rock  moving  in  obedience  to  a  meas- 
ureless directing  power  (just  as  a  glacier  on  the  earth's 
surface  moves  under  Titanic  pressure),  is  simply  forced 
under  the  plateau,  and  this,  with  the  additional  force  of 
rock  expansion  under  augmented  heat,  in  the  inmost 
depths  of  the  earth,  which  no  resistance  could  curb, 
gradually,  but  with  a  step  as  steady  as  time,  raised  the 
plateau  until  the  towering  ice  continent,  at  one  end  of 
the  telluric  balance-beam,  was  equipoised  by  a  new  and 
growing  continent  at  the  other. 

Now,  we  know  that  this  new  land  was  raised  by  a 
force  directed  at  right  angles  to  its  axial  line  running 
east  and  west.  The  southern  force  was  evidently  a  re- 
sisting or  passive  force;  the  northern  an  active  energy. 
We  also  know  that  a  force  working  thus  lifted  a  belt  of 
land  reaching  from  western  Europe  to  eastern  Asia 
at  nearly  the  same  time.  What,  then,  must  have  been 


Conclusive  Evidence.  369 

the  volume  of  that  lifting  force?  No  wonder  a  new 
continent  was  made.  Suppose  an  ice  cap  five  thousand 
feet  thick  should  suddenly  cover  the  Arctic  world. 
What  would  the  pressure  of  such  an  ice-continent  re- 
sult in  ?  Is  it  not  physically  certain  that  it  would  press 
that  part  of  the  earth  inward  or  downward  upon  itself, 
even  though  the  planet  were  solid  to  the  center  ?  Sixty 
thousand  feet  of  steel  blocks  piled  one  upon  another 
would  give  sufficient  pressure  to  render  the  lowest 
blocks  plastic,  and  raise  the  temperature  thereof  nearly 
to  the  point  of  fusion.  Suppose  a  mer  de  glace  were 
placed  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth  and  covered  by  thou- 
sands of  feet  of  rock.  It  is  evident  that  if  a  greater 
vertical  pressure  than  lateral  were  exerted  the  ice 
would  move  laterally  until  the  two  forces  became  equal ; 
and  it  is  easy  to  conceive  a  vertical  force  sufficiently 
great  to  press  the  entire  mass  laterally  into  another  bed. 
It  would  be  just  so  with  a  granite  bed  or  stratum  of 
steel. 

A  downfall  of  annular  matter  must  add  additional 
pressure  to  rocks,  perhaps  already  yielding  to  a  direct- 
ing force;  add  more  heat  and  consequent  expansion, 
which  no  terrestrial  resistance  can  withstand,  and  a  con- 
tinent, it  would  seem,  rises  because  additional  matter, 
by  a  resistless  force,  is  intercalated  between  its  surface 
and  its  foundation  beds. 

Let  us  remember  that  as  the  tertiary  was  a  time  of 
great  mountain  making  and  consequent  changes  in  sea- 
level,  those  portions  of  the  continent  which  necessarily 
lay  near  the  regions  of  disturbance  were  subject  to  os- 
cillation by  depression  and  elevation  of  barriers,  so 
that  inlets  from  southern  waters,  reaching  into  or  near 
the  fresh  waters,  sometimes  commingled  their  fauna, 


370  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

so  that,  as  in  the  Paris  basin,  salt  water  sometimes  occu- 
pied the  ground,  and  again  fresh  water  returned,  arid 
that  these  conditions  may  even  have  extended  at  times 
far  into  the  British  Islands.  One  fact,  however,  is 
very  plain,  that  after  the  eocene  the  northern  portion 
of  the  continents,  both  eastern  and  western,  were  sel- 
dom washed  to  any  extent  by  marine  waters.  The  evi- 
dence seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  mountain  making 
in  Europe  was  a  very  irregular  process.  The  Pyrenees, 
likely,  were  elevated  during  the  eocene  as  well  as  the 
Julian  Alps,  and  some  other  highlands.  But  the  Apen- 
nines delayed  until  the  close  of  the  eocene.  The  West- 
ern Alps,  where  stands  Mount  Blanc,  arose  at  the  close 
of  the  miocene.  Some  of  the  British  mountain  chains 
were  likely  elevated  nearly  the  same  time;  while 
there  is  also  evidence  that  mountain  making  in  Central 
and  Southern  Europe  was  active  throughout  most  of 
the  pliocene,  showing  that  the  tertiary  was  eminently  a 
period  of  disturbance. 

Further,  let  us  remember  that  if  a  tree  grown  at  the 
headwaters  of  the  Mackenzie  were  to  float  into  the  polar 
sea,  as  some  doubtless  do  to-day,  it  would  be  no  evidence 
when  found  buried  in  the  polar  sea  beds  that  a  climate 
of  the  Upper  Mackenzie  prevailed  beneath  the  Arctic 
circle.  And  when  geologists  of  to-day  find  the  Califor- 
nia pine  in  the  miocene  of  Greenland,  or  the  cypress  of 
Arkansas  in  the  miocene  of  Alaska,  or  Spitzbergen, 
they  have  no  right  to  claim  a  warm  or  subtropical  cli- 
mate for  those  regions  on  this  evidence  alone.  For 
when  we  assume  an  elevated  plateau  across  the  Atlantic 
we  must  also  assume  river  systems,  drawing  the  same 
into  northern  waters,  and  the  transfer  of  southern 
plants  to  northern  beds;  so  that  much  allowance  must 


Conclusive  Evidence.  371 

be  made  in  the  claim  that  a  subtropical  climate  has  ex- 
isted in  those  lands  when  based  on  such  evidence. 

Now,  as  we  look  back  over  the  tertiary  world,  and  are 
advised  from  its  well-known  record,  I  cannot  see  how  a 
geologist  can  come  to  any  other  conclusion  than  that 
which  here  is  evidently  forced  upon  us.  We  cannot 
shut  our  eyes  to  the  overwhelming  evidence  that  shows 
one  vast  expanse  of  fresh  waters.  'Tis  not  in  the  Paris 
basin  alone,  not  the  whole  of  northwestern  Europe 
alone,  nor  the  stretch  of  thousands  of  miles  on  the 
northern  coast  of  a  single  continent,  that  presents  this 
testimony.  It  can  scarcely  be  possible  that  a  fresh- 
water lake  of  one-fourth  the  expanse  of  the  tertiary 
fresh-water  beds  of  Europe  could  obtain.  But  when  we 
can  trace  the  shore  lines  of  this  limitless  fresh-water 
sea  around  the  whole  hemisphere,  we  are  driven,  it 
seems  to  me,  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  to  the 
conclusion  that  during  the  greater  part  of  the  tertiary 
period  the  great  Arctic  Ocean  was  a  wide  expanse  of 
fresh  waters. 

But  what  does  such  a  conclusion  lead  to?  It  leads 
directly  to  the  positive  and  permanent  establishment  of 
the  annular  theory.  A  fresh-water  polar  ocean,  coming 
immediately  after  the  cretaceous  period,  means  a  vast 
down-flow  of  annular  waters  or  snows — the  very  thing 
demanded  by  the  cretaceous  glaciers,  the  very  thing  de- 
manded by  the  elevated  barrier,  the  very  thing  de- 
manded by  the  sweeping  and  universal  extermination 
of  species.  If  no  other  evidence  could  be  found  to  sup- 
port this  theory  a  polar  fresh-water  ocean  rolling  as  it 
were  over  the  beds  of  cretaceous  matter  would  seem  to 
settle  the  question  beyond  a  doubt,  since  no  other  ter- 
restrial source  or  cause  can  be  found. 


372  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

Thus  it  seems  that  every  step  we  have  taken  in  this 
long  and  to  some,  perhaps,  tedious  investigation  has 
added  a  link  of  testimony  in  favor  of  the  grand  concep- 
tion of  an  annular  system.  We  read  the  thought  on  the 
gilded  firmament — the  clock-work  of  the  heavens;  we 
read  it  in  the  solid  rock-ribbed  earth  traced  in  imperish- 
able lines,  from  the  close  of  the  archaean  time  till  the 
last  great  fall  of  waters — a  thousand  links  joined  and 
inter  joined — a  multitude  of  witnesses  speak  from  every 
field.  Our  knowledge  of  the  earth  is  yet  exceedingly 
limited.  Geology  is  yet  in  its  infancy.  Man  is  just 
waking  up  and  laying  hold  of  the  great  volume.  And 
the  earth — conceived  in  nebulous  heat,  born  in  the 
throes  of  the  mightiest  revulsions,  rocked  in  the  billows 
of  a  molten  sea,  and  swaddled  by  its  inveterate  flames — 
grew  old  and  now  treads  its  majestic  round,  clad  in  the 
wreck  of  rings,  its  bosom  filled  with  the  dust  of  races. 
From  that  dust  man  has  arisen,  and  looks  back  upon 
the  bed  whence  he  came  with  bewildered  eyes,  and 
forth  upon  the  possibilities  in  visions  bright  with  HOPE. 


APPENDIX. 


NOTE  I. 

THE    LAST   ADVANCE    OF   GLACIERS. 

It  must  seem  plain  to  the  reasoning  mind  that  if  the  last  down- 
fall of  exterior  vapors  fell  at  the  time  of  Noah,  and  was,  as  is 
here  claimed,  the  deluge,  then  there  must  have  been  a  modern 
advance  of  polar  glaciers,  agreeably  to  a  physical  law  referred  to 
before. 

As  previously  stated,  when  exterior  vapors  entered  the  atmos- 
phere, they  gravitated  naturally  more  largely  toward  the  polar 
regions,  and,  falling  there  as  snows,  would  accumulate  there  as 
glacier s, and  the  extent  of  those  glaciers  would  correspond  to  the 
amount  of  snows.  Now,  it  is  evident,  if  there  ever  was  an  Eden 
climate  on  this  earth,  its  destruction  was  brought  about  by  a 
change  of  climate.  It  is  also  evident,  if  the  deluge  was  a  col- 
lapse of  the  last  remnants  of  upper  waters,  that  the  latter  must 
have  begun  to  fall  in  polar  regions  many  centuries  previous, 
since  we  see  that  throughout  all  geologic  times  such  changes 
are  spread  over  vast  periods. 

It  appears  that  the  Eden  world  suffered  a  change  during  the 
Adamite  age  (Gen.  3:  17  to  22;  also  Gen.  4:  12),  and  it  also  ap- 
pears that  that  change  was  effected  by  a  change  in  climate.  For 
the  race  which  dwelt  naked  in  Eden  became  clothed  in  the  skins 
of  animals;  and  whatever  interpretation  the  opinionated  may 
draw,  I  draw  my  conclusions  from  law.  That,  if  the  infant  hu- 
man race  ever  dwelt  naked  on  earth,  the  climate  was  then  warm, 
and  if  it  afterwards  dwelt  on  earth  clothed  in  the  skins  of  ani- 
mals, it  had  then  become  colder.  And  if  it  grew  colder,  it  is 
more  than  probable  it  was  caused  by  a  fall  of  snows;  and  if 
Eden  was  formed  by  means  pointed  out  in  these  pages,  then  it 
must  be  almost  certain  that  the  Edenic  climate  was  changed  by  a 
fall  of  snows  from  the  earth's  annular  system.* 

*  See  "  Eden's  Flaming  Sword  "  in  the  author's  second  volume 
on  the  annular  theory. 


374  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

Hence  we  have  reasonable  grounds  for  concluding  that  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  of  the  Edenic  period  the  vapors 
which  finally  involved  the  earth  in  a  terrific  and  wide-desolating 
flood,  continued  to  fall  as  snows  at  the  poles.  And,  if  the  physi- 
cal conditions  of  the  antediluvians  and  their  environment  de- 
pended upon  the  conditions  of  upper  vapors,  of  which  there  is 
no  reasonable  doubt,  then  the  question  is  almost  reduced  to  a 
demonstration  that  polar  glaciers  began  to  advance  in  Edenic 
times;  and  thus  we  have  connected  into  one  grand  and  varied 
scene,  the  \vhole  age  of  antediluvian  man.  The  same  cause  that 
deprived  him  of  his  Eden  home,  and  brought  upon  him  all  of  life's 
physical  ills  in  a  modified  form,  closed  the  scene  at  the  time  the 
"  fountains  "  of  the  aerial  "  deep  "  were  "  broken  up." 

Now,  if  this  be  true,  there  must  be  some  physical  evidence  of 
a  change  in  climate.  Let  us  briefly  turn  our  attention  to  this. 
The  exceedingly  slow  motion  of  glaciers  is  well  known.  A  sud- 
den fall  of  polar  snows  would  immediately  and  rapidly  send  its 
chilling  influence  over  an  Eden  world;  but  the  full  effect  of  the 
same  would  be  gradual  and  depend  entirely  upon  the  progress  of 
the  glaciers  and  the  volume  of  snows  composing  them.  Untold 
centuries  might  intervene  before  adjacent  lands  would  yield  to  the 
scepter  of  eternal  winter.  As  the  polar  glacier?  urged  their  way 
from  the  dead  to  the  living  world,  it  changed  the  climates  of 
genial  lands  to  the  lifeless  scenes  of  the  glacial  epochs. 

More  than  eight  hundred  years  ago  Greenland  was  not  the 
frigid  land  it  now  is.  Eight  centuries  ago  the  Icelanders  and 
Northmen  sailed  through  northern  seas,  in  the  interest  of  com- 
luerce,  where  now  our  hardiest  seamen,  in  ample  vessels,  well 
manned  and  equipped,  scarcely  dare  to  venture.  They  planted 
colonies  on  Greenland's  shores,  whose  very  name  bespeaks  a 
fruitful  clime.  They  erected  monuments  on  an  island  in  Baffin's 
Bay  whose  remains  tell  a  tale  of  enterprise  and  energy.  They 
entered  Lancaster  Sound  and  Barrows  Strait.*  Icelandic  annals 
show  that  their  people  not  only  pushed  forward  commercial  enter- 
prises into  these  now  inhospitable  lands,  but  they  also  carried 
their  religion  into  the  new  colonies.  Greenland  and  Spitzbergen 
were,  according  to  their  histories,  for  centuries  prosperous  and 
happy  settlements.  We  must  give  these  annals  due  credence. 
What  has  become  of  these  colonies?  Would  any  nation  now  at- 
tempt to  colonize  those  dreary  solitudes  of  eternal  winter,  with 
the  prospect  of  making  prosperous  settlements?  Is  it  not  evi- 

*  See  Am.  Cyc. :   "  Arctic  Discoveries." 


Appendix.  375 

dent  that  the  Greenland  and  Spitzbergen  of  the  Northmen  age 
were  not  the  Greenland  and  Spitzbergen  of  to-day?  It  really 
s>eems  that  the  northern  glacier  has  progressed  so  far  southward 
that  once  habitable  lands  have  become  desolate — we  might  almost 
say  "  without  inhabitant." 

Jt  seems  likely,  then,  in  view  of  a  former  genial  temperature 
in  northern  lands,  that  the  present  glaciation  of  the  polar  worlds 
is  but  a  legitimate  result  of  the  decline  of  the  last  remnant  of 
outer  vapors.  From  this  it  necessarily  follows  that  the  great  ice 
caps  of  the  polar  regions  are  moving  toward  the  equator,  and 
consequently  are  continually  diminishing.  They  are  continually 
sending  off  great  icebergs  out  into  the  seas,  where  they  melt  and 
drop  their  load  of  mud  and  dirt,  gravel  and  boulders,  and,  it  may 
be,  their  entombed  and  mummied  dead. 

Thus,  it  is  possible,  we  are  approaching  a  day  when  the  last 
iceberg  will  be  borne  toward  the  tropics,  and  the  last  glacier  be 
made  to  loose  its  grip  upon  the  land,  and  a  more  genial  clime 
pervade  a  greater  part  of  the  earth. 


NOTE  II. 


THE  LOST  CONTINENT. 

Evidence  is  continually  accumulating  which  goes  to  show  that 
a  great  Pacific  continent  now  lies  under  water.  Since  the  chap- 
ter on  "  Oceanic  Augmentation  "  was  put  in  manuscript  form  1 
have  read,  with  intense  interest,  the  "  Lost  Atlantis,"  by  Ignatius 
Donnelly.  The  mass  of  evidence  this  author  brings  forth  to  prove 
the  existence  of  a  submerged  continent  in  the  Atlantic  waters 
is  simply  astonishing.  The  fact  that  a  great  insular  continent 
has,  in  very  recent  geologic  time,  been  overflowed,  seems  to  be 
so  clearly  proven  that  it  may  be  looked  upon  as  an  established 
truth.  But  tell  me,  how  could  such  great  continents  sink  with- 
out drawing  the  oceanic  waters  away  from  the  shores  of  the  con- 
tinents, and  thus  increasing  the  pitch  of  rivers  near  their  out- 
lets? In  addition  to  the  submerged  continent  of  the  Pacific  and 
that  of  the  Atlantic,  between  the  United  States  and  Africa, 
there  is  a  vast  submerged  continent  or  barrier  of  the  North 
Atlantic. 

These  facts  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  oceans  have  been 
augmented,  and  stand  to-day  many  fathoms  deeper  than  they 
did,  perhaps,  in  the  Edenic  day. 


376  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

NOTE  III. 

ANTHRACITES  IN  BRITISH  AMERICA. 

My  readers  will  remember  the  claim  made  in  the  chapter  on 
"  Anthracites,"  that  such  heavy  forms  of  coal  must  lie  in  great 
beds  along  the  slopes  of  British  America.  In  a  lecture  delivered 
by  the  author,  before  these  pages  were  in  the  publishers'  hands, 
this  language  was  used :  "  Long  ago  I  predicted  that  great  beds 
of  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal  would  be  found  to  underlie 
the  great  basin  and  plateau  of  British  America.  England,  in  the 
possession  of  that  vast  territory,  is  richer  than  if  she  owned  all 
the  gold  mines  of  the  world." 

It  is  now  authentically  announced  that  "  a  seam  of  fine  quality 
of  anthracite  has  been  found  eight  hundred  miles  west  of  Winni- 
peg, on  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad.  The  seam  is  fourteen  feet 
thick!  » 


NOTE  IV. 

A  SIGNIFICANT  ADMISSION. 

As  these  pages  are  undergoing  their  last  revision  before  being 
placed  in  the  printers'  hands,  a  friendly  letter  comes  from  Prof. 
N.  H.  Winchell,  of  the  Minneapolis  University,  and  State  Geolo- 
gist of  Minnesota.  In  this  letter  the  writer  makes  the  frank  con- 
cession that  the  primeval  vapors,  mineral  laden  and  revolving  on 
high,  "  must  have  lingered  in  the  skies  much  later  than  has 
been  admitted."  This  was  in  reply  to  my  pamphlet,  "  Alaska, 
Land  of  the  Nugget,  Why  ?  " 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  writer  ever  imagined  what  a  sweep- 
ing admission  he  made.  If  we  admit  that  the  primordial  waters 
did  not  all  come  back  to  the  earth  till  more  recent  times,  then 
the  annular  theory  of  world  making  is  conceded.  We  admit  the 
geologic  ages  were  outlined  by  the  progressive  wreck  of  the 
earth's  annular  system.  Then  how  can  we  avoid  the  solution  of 
the  glacial  problem,  for  as  surely  as  the  vapors  fell  in  modern 
geologic  times  they  fell  as  snows  in  the  polar  world,  north  and 
south.  So,  too,  as  surely  as  those  primeval  vapors  arose  from 
a  molten  earth  they  were  laden  with  gold  vapors,  which  readily 
associate  with  heated  waters,  and  we  are  forced  to  the  conclu- 
sion that,  as  these  vapors  arose  together,  they  rode  together  for 
ages  in  the  lofty  skies,  and,  as  the  earth  cooled,  they  crystalized 


Appendix.  377 

into  forms — snow-flakes,  hail,  nuggets  and  gold-flakes,  etc.,  and 
when  they  fell  they  fell  together  in  polar  lands.  So  that  the 
birth-place  of  the  glacier  is  the  birth-place  of  placer  gold. 

Primeval  vapors,  lingering  in  the  skies  until  recent  geologic 
times,  mean  an  annular  system  with  all  that  it  implies.  Then 
how  are  we  to  face  the  coal  and  the  oil  problems — for  vapors 
could  not  rise  from  a  molten  earth  and  not  carry  a  world  of 
unconsumed  fuel  with  them?  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  geologists  be  careful  how  and  what  they  concede.  The  earth 
in  all  its  features  is  linked  to  an  ancient  ring  system.  Go  what 
road  we  may,  we  are  perpetually  meeting  with  its  deathless  sur- 
vivals. The  miners  of  Alaskan  gold  all  admit,  as  they  collect  the 
nuggets  and  the  dust  from  the  frozen  earth,  from  the  very  sum- 
mits of  mountain  peaks  and  from  the  surface  of  glaciers,  that 
the  precious  hoard  was  not  ground  from  the  rocks.  Whence 
came  it  then?  A  letter  lying  before  me  affirms  that  the  "gold 
found  on  the  surface  of  Mt.  Fairweather  Glacier  must  have 
from  the  heavens."  How  the  truth  struggles  to  the  light! 


THE  TRUE  ORIGIN  OF  COAL— THE  VEGETATION  THEORY 
DISPROVED. 

The  following  lecture  was  delivered  before  the  Belmont  County 
Teachers'  Institute,  at  its  meeting  in  Barnesville,  Ohio,  August 
llth,  1885: 

I  am  glad  to  meet  with  you,  my  friends,  teachers  of  my  na- 
tive county,  in  the  discussion  of  the  coal  problem.  I  am  glad  be- 
cause it  is  to  the  student  and  instructor  that  I  must  confide  the 
promulgation  of  the  theory  I  am  about  to  explain.  It  is  a  most 
important  problem;  important,  because  it  involves  the  fate  of 
many  time-honored  theories.  This  is  a  day  when  all  scientific 
(questions  are  tested  by  the  calcium  light  of  reason — weighed  in 
the  philosopher's  scales,  and  valued  by  the  microscopic  test  of 
law. 

A  theory  that  absolutely  fails  in  one  point  is  a  complete  fail- 
ure. And,  after  a  critical  examination  of  the  hypothesis  that  the 
coal  beds  of  the  earth  are  a  vegetable  product,  it  is  found  that 
it  does  absolutely  and  utterly  fail  in  many  points,  and  that  it 
has  scarcely  a  feature  that  can  abide  these  tests. 

THE  CHART. — I  present  before  you  a  chart  representing  a 
planet  just  issuing  from  the  igneous  or  molten  condition — a 


378  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

planet  constituted  as  the  earth,  of  water,  mineral  and  metallic 
matter — a  chart  exhibiting  the  great  and  essential  fact  that 
such  a  planet  must  at  some  time  in  the  course  of  its  evolution 
become  surrounded  by  a  complex  system  of  equatorial  rings, 
composed  of  matter  concentrated  from  its  nebulous  empire  and 
mingled  with  aqueous  and  mineral  vapors,  expelled  from  its 
heated  center  during  the  reign  of  fire.  It  represents  the  original 
atmosphere  of  a  burning  world,  which  atmosphere  formed  into 
rings  as  the  suspended  vapors  condensed.  So  that  such  a  system 
is  necessarily  composed  of  matter,  meteoric  and  vaporous,  on  its 
downward  course  to  a  common  center,  and  other  matter  driven 
outward  and  upward  by  the  measureless  energy  of  heat,  and 
which,  from  utter  necessity,  upon  falling  within,  becomes  no  in- 
considerable part  of  the  planet's  sedimentary  beds,  or  aqueous- 
formed  crust.  It  presents  to  your  view  what  I  have  called  the 
"  Annular  Theory."  — a  thing  conceived  in  my  boyish  mind  as  I 
gazed  in  confused  wonder  upon  the  ring  system  of  the  planet 
Saturn.  Believing  that  one  unchanging  and  universal  law  pre- 
sided in  the  construction  of  worlds,  I  could  not  divest  my  mind 
of  the  conception  that  the  earth  also  must  have  had  at  one  time 
a  ring  or  annular  system,  and  amid  the  "  ups  and  downs  "  of  a 
varied  life  the  idea  has  lived  as  a  part  of  my  mental  being,  until 
it  now  seems  to  be  a  positive  reality.  In  the  course  of  time 
the  question  of  the  origin  of  coal,  with  numerous  other  important 
ones,  became  involved  in  and,  as  I  hold,  satisfactorily  explained 
by  this  theory,  after  all  these  crucial  tests  had  been  applied. 

Now  you  will  excuse  me  if  I  should  be  a  little  tedious  in  ap- 
proaching this  question,  for  it  is  no  ordinary  one — one  upon 
which  you  can  afford  to  devote,  not  minutes  nor  hours,  but  days 
and  weeks  of  thought. 

The  first  thing  for  us  to  understand,  in  the  evolution  of  this 
theory,  is  the  now  settled  fact  that  this  earth  was  once  a  burn- 
ing orb.  Wherever  we  turn  the  telescope  upon  the  universe  of 
worlds  we  see  the  glowing  suns  of  a  scintillating  creation — the 
sparkling  centers  of  evolving  worlds.  The  spectroscope  also 
speaks,  and  in  it  we  put  implicit  faith,  for  it  cannot  falsify.  It 
photographs  on  the  philosopher's  screen  the  flames  of  comets  and 
suns.  It  tells  us  that  nebulae,  planets  and  stars  are  composed 
of  materials  the  same  in  kind  as  those  out  of  which  the  earth  wan 
built.  Every  star  is  a  burning  world,  and  consequently  a  smok- 
ing world— «a  mighty  crucible  in  which  mineral  and  metallic  ele- 
ments are  fused,  vaporized  and  sublimed;  where  chemical  com- 


Appendix.  379 

pounds  are  reduced  and  re-combined;  where  the  work  of  creation 
and  re-creation  is  going  on  forever. 

Now  let  us  imagine  a  world  composed  exclusively  of  water 
and  sandstone.  Let  it  be  fused  or  melted  to  its  inmost  depths 
by  inveterate  heat,  as  millions  of  worlds  are  to-day.  By  this 
heat  its  waters  would  be  vaporized  and  driven  away  from  the 
fiery  mass,  and  the  core  would  be  a  mass  of  melted  silica,  and  an 
atmosphere  of  aqueous  vapors  would  surround  it.  Now,  if  the 
heat  be  increased  so  as  to  make  the  mass  a  shining  sun  or  beam- 
ing star,  the  silica  would  be  vaporized  and  also  driven  away  and 
made  to  commingle  with  the  watery  vapors,  and,  if  the  melted 
mass  contained  limestone,  iron  or  lead,  these  substances  would 
also  be  vaporized  and  the  vaporous  atmosphere  would  contain 
gaseous  matter  of  all  these  substances.  And  it  must  be  seen  that 
in  the  universe  of  law,  as  the  mass  becomes  cold,  these  vaporized 
elements  would  condense,  in  order  of  their  susceptibility  of  fusion 
and  vaporization,  and,  falling  to  a  common  center,  would  form 
a  spherical  mass,  not  of  water  and  sandstone  as  before,  but  one 
composed  of  all  these  elements.  It  must  also  be  seen  that  the 
aqueous  vapors  would  be  the  last  to  condense,  and,  moreover, 
the  last  to  fall  from  the  position  which  they  must  have  taken 
under  the  reign  of  heat,  r.epelling  from  a  focus;  and,  while  all 
these  materials  thus  vaporized  and  afterwards  condensed,  must 
to  some  extent  become  commingled  and  form,  just  as  we  see  un- 
der our  feet,  a  heterogeneous  world,  yet  there  would  be  upon 
the  whole  some  definite  and  regular  order  of  strata  arrange- 
ment. For,  in  the  condensation  and  consequent  precipitation  the 
heaviest  and  most  refractory  minerals — minerals  most  difficult  to 
fuse  and  vaporize — would  separate  from  the  rest  and  settle  first. 
Beds  of  silex,  almost  pure,  and  silicious  beds  containing  iron,  cal- 
cium and  every  other  metal  or  mineral  contained  in  the  fiery 
envelope  would  recur  in  some  kind  of  order  in  our  hypothetic 
world.  There  would  be  beds  of  metals  arising  from  this  fiery 
distillation  nearly  pure,  under  the  law  of  elemental  assortment 
and  segregation.  We  see  this  law  abundantly  and  universally 
exemplified  in  the  entire  structure  of  the  earth's  crust.  We  have 
sand  beds,  lime  beds  and  metallic  beds,  all  nearly  pure;  and  then 
beds  of  every  degree  almost  of  impurity  or  mixture*  Hence,  we 
are  at  once  forced  to  face  the  self-evident  truth  that  there  must 
be  in  the  sedimentary  beds  of  every  previously  molten  orb  the 
very  material  that  formerly  had  existed  in  its  atmosphere. 
If  that  atmosphere  or  glowing  envelope  contained  carbon  in 
any  form  whatever,  that  carbon  would  be  contained  as  pure  and 


380  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

also  as  mixed  beds  in  the  sedimentary  crust.  Now  let  me.  ask  you 
to  remember  this  vital  fact.  I  will  state  it  again,  so  that  you 
can  all  certainly  understand  it.  In  every  world  whose  fiery  and 
vaporous  atmosphere  contained  carbonaceous  matter  there  must 
be  beds  of  carbon  of  varying  degrees  of  purity.  For  the  same 
reason  that  silicious  minerals  must  form  sand  beds  as  they  fall 
from  the  'great  vaporous  fund;  for  the  same  reason  that  cal- 
careous minerals  must  form  strata  of  limestone,  mineral  carbon, 
in  whatever  form  it  existed,  whether  as  graphite  or  carbonate, 
as  carbonic  anhydride,  or  even  as  the  diamond,  must  have  sep- 
arated in  that  inevitable  sublimation  from  its  associated  ele- 
ments and  finally  formed  carbon  beds  in  the  evolving  world. 
Beds  of  primitive  carbon!  Carbon  that  needed  not  the  light  of 
the  sun  nor  the  mysterious  laboratory  of  the  plant  to  make  it 
carbon.  Carbon  that  existed  as  such  millions  of  years  before 
a  plant  cell  existed. 

Did  I  call  this  a  vital  question?  Is  there  a  man  who  dares 
dispute  it?  It  is  vital  because  it  utterly  abrogates  the  old  idea 
that  a  carbon  bed  can  have  no  other  source  than  that  of  vege- 
tation. Here  is  the  critical  foundation  upon  which  geologists 
stand  to-day,  who  say  coal  is  a  vegetable  product  because  vegeta- 
tion is  the  only  competent  source  of  carbon  beds.  Away  down 
amid  the  archrean  piles  of  the  earth,  amid  primitive  rocks  that 
never  felt  the  thrill  of  the  sunbeam's  touch ;  where  never  a  plant, 
a  twig,  a  leaf,  or  a  bud  can  be  found  as  a  fossil,  you  will  find 
stupendous  beds  of  primitive  carbon,  as  all  geologists  know  full 
well.  Then,  I  say,  please  remember  the  vital  fact,  while  I  go 
around  it  and  approach  it  from  another  side. 

A  molten  or  a  burning  world,  rotating  upon  an  axis,  as  the 
earth  does,  will  fling  its  great  atmosphere  of  vaporized  water, 
mineral  and  metallic  matter  into  rings  in  its  equatorial  regions. 
1  cannot,  in  the  short  time  I  have  to  address  you,  give  very 
much  evidence  to  prove  this  proposition.  It  is,  however,  sus- 
ceptible of  the  clearest  mathematical  demonstration.  I  will  sim- 
ply state  a  few  facts  and  ask  you  to  admit  it,  and,  if  you  are 
ever  fortunate  or  unfortunate  enough  to  read  the  "  Earth's  An- 
nular Theory,"  you  will  find  the  startling  demonstration  there  in 
full  and  so  simple  a  child  can  understand  it. 

The  exhaustless  and  measureless  energy  of  heat  exerted  to 
vaporize  the  refractory  minerals  and  metals,  now  glowing  and 
sparkling  in  millions  of  stars — grand  central  fires  of  other  sys- 
tems— must  drive  these  vapors  so  far  into  space  that,  as  they 
necessarily  obey  the  mighty  impetus  given  them  by  the  orb's  ro- 


Appendix.  381 

tation,  they  accumulate  so  much  energy  that  they  must  continue 
to  revolve  independently  about  the  central  body  for  a  long  time 
after  the  mass  becomes  cold.  The  day  is  not  very  far  distant 
when  it  will  be  admitted  on  all  hands  that  ring  or  annular  form- 
ation is  an  indispensable  part  of  planetary  evolution. 

We  see  this  necessary  and  legitimate  result  of  plutonic  energy 
beautifully  and  grandly  exemplified  in  the  clockwork  of  the  skies. 
Jupiter  and  Saturn,  twin  giants  of  the  solar  system,  proclaim 
this  eternal  truth  across  the  mighty  void  that  separates  this 
puny  world  from  them.  See  how  gloriously  they  thread  their 
course  through  the  heavens,  Titanic  worlds  yet  unfinished.  A 
great  part  of  their  oceans  and  much  of  their  future  sedimentary 
crust  are  yet  revolving  about  them  as  vapors  and  meteoric  dust. 
Jupiter  has  belts,  material  belts,  revolving  about  him,  and  Saturn 
has  both  rings  and  belts.  It  can  be  readily  demonstrated  by 
physical  law  that  Jupiter's  belts  were  once  in  the  form  of  con- 
centric rings  in  his  equatorial  heavens.  Also  that  Saturn's  rings 
are  gradually  approaching  the  planet,  and  that  the  belts  of  both 
planets  are  gradually  falling  to  their  surfaces  by  way  of  the 
polar  regions.  So  that  the  day  will  come,  as  sure  as  law  presides 
in  the  government  of  heaven,  that  Saturn  will  be  stripped  of  her 
glorious  appendage. 

Did  the  earth  ever  possess  such  an  appendage?  There  is  not 
an  astronomer  who  will  say  no.  There  is  not  a  geologist  who  will 
not  say  it  did  after  he  shall  once  have  examined  the  geological 
record  with  an  impartial  and  philosophic  eye.  Examine  the  world 
upon  which  you  live!  See  what  stupendous  revolutions  are 
chronicled  in  its  rocky  volume!  What  is  its  past  history?  A 
thousand  volumes  cannot  reveal  it  all.  But  there  is  one  chapter 
that  I  will  attempt  to  interpret  to-day — a  noble  chapter,  written 
with  a  pen  of  fire  on  immortal  stone.  What  does  it  say?  On  its 
title  page  we  read:  "When  the  dial  finger  of  time  pointed  to  the 
dawn  of  ages  the  earth  was  a  burning  world."  It  rolled  through 
space  a  glowing  sun.  Its  rocky  beds  were  molten  and  the  oceans 
that  now  wash  the  rock-bound  shores  were  held  in  suspension  on 
high  by  the  repelling  power  of  heat.  This  igneous  or  fiery  con- 
dition of  the  earth  in  primeval  times  is  admitted  on  all  hands. 
If  any  question  has  ever  been  settled  by  the  philosophy  of  man, 
this  one  has.  Then  the  earth  was  no  exception  in  its  mode  of 
evolution  in  the  universe  of  worlds;  and  all  its  present  oceans 
and  a  part  of  every  substance  now  found  in  its  upper  crust  ex- 
isted in  its  great  primeval  atmosphere.  What  a  wondrous  atmos- 
phere that  was!  Twenty  miles  of  aqueous  strata  tell  us  what 


382  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

it  was  composed  of.  Mixed  with  a  mighty  fund  of  silicon,  calcium, 
iron,  copper,  lead,  silver,  gold,  sodium,  oxygen  and  hydrogen  was 
an  immensity  of  carbon.  All  the  carbon  now  in  the  lime  beds 
of  the  world's  crust  was  there;  all  the  carbon  in  the  carbonate 
of  iron,  zinc  and  lead,  and  all  the  carbonates  were  there;  ao 
also  the  measureless  fund  of  carbon  now  stored  away  as  coal 
was  there. 

But  the  more  extensive  the  primeval  atmosphere  the  more 
likely  are  its  condensing  vapors  to  be  whirled  into  rings.  The 
rim  of  a  wheel  must  rotate  in  the  same  time  the  rest  of  it  does. 
And,  after  making  all  due  allowance  for  the  mobility  of  the  mass 
of  the  great  fund  of  vapors  that  ever  canopied  the  primitive 
earth,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  boundary  of  the  same  moved 
with  immense  velocity.  Now,  many  eminent  men  of  science  ad- 
vance the  claim  that  the  atmosphere  was  at  least  240,000  miles 
deep.  We  will  not  claim  half  that  depth — say  100,000  miles;  but 
the  peripheral  boundary  of  an  atmosphere  of  that  depth,  even, 
if  the  entire  mass  rotated  once  in  twenty-four  hours,  as  our  at- 
mosphere now  does  with  the  earth,  had  a  rotary  velocity  of 
25,000  miles  per  hour.  But  this  is  nearly  8,000  miles  per  hour 
more  rapidly  than  it  need  to  move  in  order  to  whirl  the  vapors 
into  rings,  even  if  it  was  not  one  mile  deep  or  at  the  surface  of 
the  earth. 

By  means  of  Kepler's  third  law  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  de- 
termine how  deep  the  atmosphere  must  have  been  in  order  that 
the  revolution  of  the  same  in  twenty-four  hours  would  throw  its 
condensed  matter  into  equatorial  rings.  Any  one  who  will  take 
the  trouble  and  make  the  calculation  will  see  that  it  need  not  be 
240,000  miles,  nor  100,000  miles,  but  a  little  more  than  7,000  miles. 
Hence,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  all  the  primeval  va- 
pors situated  more  than  7,360  miles  from  the  earth's  surface 
continued  to  revolve  about  their  primary  center  after  they  grew 
cold  and  condensed,  and  all  those  situated  nearer  the  earth  fell 
to  its  surface  because  they  had  not  centrifugal  energy  enough 
to  retain  them.  Such  are  the  demands  of  law,  and  I  presume 
there  is  not  a  mathematical  or  philosophical  mind  that  can  doubt 
this  conclusion  after  having  sufficiently  contemplated  the  facts 
that  the  earth  was  once  in  a  molten  state  and  rotated  as  it  now 
does.  A  neglect  or  failure  on  the  part  of  the  geologists  to  follow 
the  effects  of  this  fiery  condition  of  the  pi-imitive  earth  to  this 
legitimate  end  has  led  us  into  pernicious  errors.  Now  where  are 
we?  We  found  an  immensity  of  carbon  in  the  primitive  form  in 
the  fiery  envelope  of  the  earth;  and  we  now  find  that  it  existed 


Appendix.  383 

in  the  annular  form  revolving  about  it,  associated  with  its  aque- 
ous oceans  of  vapor.  These  two  facts  stand  out  prominently  in 
the  annular  theory  and  challenge  the  world  for  a  refutation. 
You  already  know  that  the  whole  course  of  geology  has  been  pur- 
sued with  the  idea  that  the  waters  and  their  associated  matter 
all  fell  to  the  earth  before  any  of  the  aqueous  beds  were  depos- 
ited; that  is,  they  never  formed  into  rings.  Now,  if  these  vapors 
never  formed  into  rings,  then  geologists  are  right,  and  I  am 
wrong.  But  a  molten  world — an  igneous  era — necessitates  ring 
formation;  then,  if  I  am  wrong  in  my  conclusions,  the  earth 
was  never  in  an  igneous  condition.  But  it  must  be  said  that  we 
simply  know  it  was  once  in  that  condition.  There  is  where  we 
are — simply  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  elementary  carbon,  once 
driven  from  the  fire-born  earth,  revolved  about  it,  and,  therefore, 
fell,  with  its  aqueous  vapors,  in  grand  instalments.  Now  keep 
these  facts  in  view  while  we  make  another  excursion  and  bring 
up  other  reinforcements. 

Every  philosophic  mind  will  agree  with  me  in  the  claim  that 
if  the  earth  ever  was  in  a  burning  state,  it  was  also  in  a  smoking 
state.  The  constitution  of  the  globe  is  such  as  to  render  this  a 
necessary  and  absolute  fact.  From  every  fire-place  and  furnace, 
from  every  volcano  on  earth,  issues  smoke.  But  smoke  is  uncon- 
sumed  carbon.  This  carbon  is  in  the  form  of  infinitesimal  par- 
ticles, and,  being  released  from  various  combinations,  is,  accord- 
ing to  chemical  law,  in  Avhat  is  called  its  nascent  state  and  eager 
to  enter  into  new  combinations.  Hence  its  ready  union  with  the 
oxygen  of  the  air,  as  any  chemist  can  prove,  by  which  smoke  be- 
comes invisible  in  a  short  time.  But  nascent  carbon  or  smoke 
has  an  affinity  for  hydrogen,  and  if  it  cannot  obtain  oxygen  it 
will  dissolve  or  decompose  aqueous  vapor  and  appropriate  its 
hydrogen,  forming  a  hydro-carbon,  after  which  the  oxygen  just 
released  combines  with  it,  forming  an  oxy-hydro-carbon.  Were  it 
not,  then,  for  the  presence  of  oxygen  in  the  air,  the  mighty  vol- 
umes of  smoke  that  eternally  arise  from  millions  of  chimneys 
would,  in  a  short  time,  fill  the  atmosphere  with  midnight  black- 
ness. There  would  be  a  constant  deposit  of  hydro-carbon  in  the 
form  of  soot  upon  the  earth,  and  men  might  collect  this  carbon 
and  burn  it,  as  we  now  do  our  coal. 

Let  any  one  watch  the  black  column  of  unconsumed  carbon 
issuing  from  a  locomotive  burning  bituminous  coal.  In  how  short 
a  time  it  vanishes  in  air.  It  is  simply  undergoing  a  second  com- 
bustion— a  union  with  oxygen.  Or  you  may  perform  a  more  sim- 
ple experiment  by  burning  a  rag  or  piece  of  paper  in  the  open  air. 


384  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

The  carbonized  paper  or  rag  lying  before  you  may  be  lighted 
and  made  to  burn  again.  A  slow  combustion  will  spread  over 
it  again  and  again,  until  the  carbon  becomes  invisible,  leaving 
nothing  but  ashes.  You  have  seen  this  secondary  combustion 
many  a  time  in  your  soot-clogged  chimneys  and  stove-pipes.  You 
have  seen  a  transient  flame  play  over  the  back  wall  covered 
with  an  oily  soot. 

These  are  manifestations  of  unchanging  law.  They  exhibit  an 
ocular  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  smoke  or  unconsumed  car- 
bon, from  whatever  source  it  comes,  is  again  formed  into  fuel, 
and  will  burn  again.  And  if,  as  it  arises  from  the  furnaces  of  the 
earth,  it  could  be  stored  away  among  watery  vapors,  where 
oxygen  could  not  play  upon  it,  it  would  all  be  burned  into  an 
oxy-hydro-carbon.  What  is  an  oxy-hydro-carbon?  It  is  »n  oily 
or  bituminous  substance,  composed  of  carbon,  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen— the  very  substance  stored  away  as  coal  in  the  earth's 
crust.  We  are  now  ready  for  another  vital  question.  What 
has  become  of  the  vast  fund  of  smoke  that  went  up  from  the 
burning  or  igneous  world?  What  has  become  of  the  unconsumed 
carbon  distilled  by  the  earth's  inveterate  fires?  Every  man  must 
know  that  it  went  up  and  lodged,  so  to  speak,  among  the  sus- 
pended vapors  on  high,  and,  being  in  immediate  contact  with 
them,  in  a  very  ocean  of  hydrogen,  it  must  have  become  a  hydro- 
carbon. Now  it  does  not  make  a  particle  of  difference  whether 
the  smoke  issues  from  the  flying  locomotive,  from  ^Etna's  fiery 
entrails,  or  from  millions  of  telluric  flames,  the  distillation  of 
carbon  is  the  same,  and  it  can  make  no  difference  whether  it  hov- 
ers in  the  atmosphere  or  is  flying  with  volcanic  force  thousands 
of  miles  into  space;  it  is  governed  by  the  same  immutable  law. 
In  the  atmosphere  the  oxygen  devours  it,  and  it  vanishes;  but 
beyond  the  atmosphere,  under  the  cope  of  heaven,  among  the 
whirling  vapors,  it  lodges  as  soot-black  hydro-carbon. 

Now,  where  are  we?  First,  we  had  carbon  as  a  primitive  ele- 
ment, before  the  dawn  of  vegetation.  Therefore  it  was  not  a 
vegetable  product.  Next,  we  find  it  revolving  in  the  earth's 
annular  system  as  carbonaceous  rings,  and  vegetation  did  not 
put  it  there.  Next,  we  find  those  rings  to  consist  of  a  black, 
sooty,  oily,  pitchy  hydro-carbon,  sent  up  from  the  fiery  focus 
of  the  planet,  and  yet  vegetation  has  taken  no  part  in  the  grand 
metaphysis.  Keep  these  facts  in  mind  awhile. 

The  hydro-carbon  seen  by  the  mind's  eye  as  dark  rings  and 
bands  surrounding  the  primitive  earth,  just  as  the  dark  carbon- 
aceous bands  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  surround  those  primaries 


Appendix.  385 

to-day,  and  the  hydro-carbon  buried  in  our  rock-ribbed  hills,  are 
one  and  the  same  thing.  The  vapors  have  fallen,  and  the  car- 
bon must  have  fallen  with  it.  Titan  hands  have  gathered  it  and 
stored  it  away  for  the  use  of  man — he  mines  it  and  burns  it 
again. 

Now,  why  should  men  conclude  that  vegetation  is  necessary 
for  the  formation  of  carbon  beds,  when  this  element,  it  must  be 
admitted,  existed  as  a  combustible  fuel  before  a  plant  germ  ever 
existed  in  the  earth?  The  formation  of  carbon  from  peat  moss 
is  a  combustion  or  redistillation  precisely  similar,  except  in  de- 
gree, to  that  which  took  place  amid  the  aqueous  vapors  on  high. 
Could  we  take  the  carbonized  paper  or  rag  in  our  experiment  be- 
fore it  burns  again,  and  place  it  side  by  side  with  peat-formed 
carbon,  they  would  be  precisely  the  same  in  kind.  As  the  peat 
MOSS  decays — or,  in  other  words,  is  consumed — a  charred  product, 
which  falls  amid  the  waters  of  the  bog,  remains  unconsumed, 
whereas,  if  it  had  remained  in  the  open  air,  it  would  have  van- 
ished in  air.  So  that  the  slow  combustion  in  a  peat  bog  becomes 
our  first  witness;  and  a  very  important  witness  it  is.  Its  testi- 
mony is  that,  if  the  puny  combustion  that  takes  place  in  the 
decay  of  peat  moss  can  produce  carbon  in  small  quantities,  just 
as  soot  is  formed  in  the  combustion  of  wood  or  any  other  car- 
bonaceous substance,  then  the  mighty,  stupendous  and  Titanic 
combustion  of  archaean  times  must  have  produced  an  infinite  and 
measureless  amount  of  it,  and,  being  a  primitive  distillation,  it 
must  have  made  a  purer  product. 

It  must  be  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  peat  car- 
bon is  but  a  secondary  transformation  that  the  vegetarian  takes 
this  primitive  carbon,  already  a  combustible  fuel,  and  made  so 
by  inexorable  law,  but  disregarding  the  smoking  furnace  of  the 
infant  earth,  conceives  it  to  be  the  unburnt  product  of  peat 
moss,  when  he  must  know  that  so  sure  as  this  earth  was  once 
in  a  molten  state  its  rising  carbon  vapors  were  changed  into  fuel 
carbon  among  the  aqueous  vapors  on  high.  He  simply  substitutes 
for  that  grand  distillation  the  slow  decay  of  vegetation.  Now 
every  one  in  the  house  must  see  that  a  necessarily  stupendous 
production  of  fuel  carbon  is  thus  abnegated  by  a  mere  triviality. 
Must  we  deny  the  testimony  of  the  geologic  record;  the  testi- 
mony of  our  sister  planets;  the  evidence  of  the  sun  and  stars, 
in  order  that  the  vegetarian  may  conceive  that  to  a  peculiar 
class  of  plants  are  delegated  these  grand  offices  of  world  making? 
You  see  that  if  he  admits  the  agency  of  telluric  heat,  he  already 
has  carbon  fuel  on  hand;  and  if  he  calls  in  the  aid  of  the  spon- 


386  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

taneous  fires  of  the  peat  marsh,  he  only  substitutes  an  utterly 
inadequate  process  to  make  what  was  made  before. 

Now  I  must  give  a  little  history.  During  a  long  and  tedious 
series  of  experiments  I  demonstrated  that  the  soot  arising  from 
burning  wood  or  coal  would  dissolve  aqueous  vapor  and  become  a 
fuel.  Then  I  knew  that  the  smoke  that  arose  from  the  burning 
world  and  entered  the  suspended  vapors  did  the  same.  I  had 
a  little  sack  of  soot  stored  away  in  my  laboratory  and  cabinet 
with  which  I  was  experimenting.  While  I  was  eager  to  satisfy 
myself  that  soot  becomes  a  hydro-carbon  in  the  air,  nature  was 
secretly  at  work  in  an  effort  to  draw  this  work  to  a  conclusion, 
for  the  sack  of  soot  had  become  so  far  hydrogenated  that  it  one 
day  began  to  oxidize  in  earnest.  It  took  lire  spontaneously, 
thus  proving  the  very  thing  I  had  been  claiming.  It  was  a 
dearly-bought  demonstration,  but  it  was  conclusive.  In  that 
building  I  had  placed  my  geological  cabinet;  specimens,  many 
hundreds  of  them,  more  valuable  to  me  than  gold,  the  work  of 
thirty  years  of  search ;  my  telescope,  the  work  of  my  own  hands 
— all  my  tools  and  drawings — ruined  or  destroyed.  It  seemed  a 
little  severe  that  all  these  things  should  be  offered  up,  a  burn- 
ing sacrifice,  to  prove  that  the  unconsumed  carbon  arising  from 
every  fire  place,  from  every  volcano,  from  every  planet,  star  or 
sun  in  the  universe,  became  a  fuel  hydro-carbon.  As  I  looked 
down  upon  the  ruins  a  voice  seemed  to  whisper,  "  It  will  be 
beauty  for  ashes." 

That  conflagration  proved  to  me,  and  proves  to  all  men, 
that  somewhere  in  the  earth's  crust  must  exist  a  combustible 
form  of  carbon,  sent  up  from  the  igneous  world.  Where  is  it? 
Where  is  it?  The  man  who  answers  this  question  solves  a  mo- 
mentous problem. 

GRAPHITE. — It  is  evident  that  if  coal  be  a  vegetable  product, 
all  other  carbon  beds  must  also  be  of  vegetable  origin,  so  that 
geologists  agree  with  Dana  that  those  vast  beds  of  graphite, 
found  in  the  oldest  aqueous  formations,  are  as  much  a  vegetable 
formation  as  peat  itself.  But  right  here  they  meet  a  stumbling 
block  which  they  can  neither  leap  over  nor  circumvent.  The  lau- 
rentian  graphite  was  deposited  in  an  age  when  vegetation,  so  far 
as  can  be  determined,  did  not  grow.  No  vegetable  fossils  can  be 
found  either  in  the  graphite  itself  or  its  associated  beds.  Geolo- 
gists have  never  found  a  reliable  or  satisfactory  trace  of  a  plant 
in  ancient  graphite  or  near  it. 

Now  it  will  avail  nothing  to  advance  the  claim  that  vegetable 
fossil  prints  have  been  obliterated  from  the  crystalline  rocks, 


Appendix.  387 

for  in  these  very  rocks  the  delicate  form  of  the  eozoon  baa  been 
preserved. 

Considering  the  immense  amount  of  archaean  graphite,  it  is 
simply  impossible  that  some  traces  of  plants  should  not  be  found 
in  it  or  near  it,  if  it  were  a  vegetable  product.  Let  us  examine 
this  form  of  carbon  in  the  light  of  the  annular  theory. 

Whenever  carbon  is  distilled,  either  from  wood,  oil  or  bones 
or  limestone,  many  allotropic  forms  of  carbon  may  be  obtained. 
We  call  them  light  and  heavy  forms.  These  are  interestingly 
illustrated  in  the  manufacture  of  burning  gas  from  coal  or  coal 
oil,  or  in  the  process  of  refining  crude  petroleum.  Here  heavy 
forms  of  carbon  are  distilled  as  asphaltum  graphite,  so  that  it 
is  well  known  that  these  are  necessary  products  of  all  such 
distillations.  Hence  the  igneous  world  must  have  yielded  all 
such  allotropic  carbon,  and  the  heaviest  forms,  as  graphite,  etc., 
must  have  existed  almost  exclusively  in  that  part  of  the  annular 
system  nearest  the  earth,  and  must,  therefore,  have  fallen  and 
became  incorporated  among  the  oldest  sedimentary  rocks.  Its 
weight  must  have  located  it  near  the  earth,  according  to  law,  and 
its  position  must  have  necessitated  its  fall  to  the  earth  before  the 
lighter  forms.  Its  present  position  is  simply  a  result  of  annular 
arrangement  previously  determined  by  law  in  the  vaporous  at- 
mosphere. Thus,  you  see,  while  the  old  theory  utterly  fails  to  ac- 
count both  for  the  origin  and  position  of  graphite,  the  new  one 
shows  why  there  are  no  traces  of  vegetation  there,  why  it  occu- 
pies the  position  it  does,  and  gives  the  only  philosophic  origin  that 
can  be  given.  Now,  suppose  it  was  not  found  in  these  early -formed 
beds,  but  bodily  among  the  carbon  beds  of  the  tertiary  rocks.  Any 
one  can  see  that  the  annular  theory  would  fail  to  account  for  it. 
But  primitive  graphite  can  never  be  found  in  any  other  position, 
except  in  small  quantities.  Hence,  we  must  admit  its  intimate  con- 
nection with  the  annular  system.  Thus,  in  support  of  the  annular 
theory,  I  find  the  graphite  just  as  I  want  to  find  it,  and,  more- 
over, just  where  I  want  to.  The  vegetarian  finds  it  as  he  don't 
want  to,  and  where  he  don't  want  to.  Choose  ye  this  day  whom 
ye  will  believe. 

AN  AQUEOUS  FORMATION. — The  general  appearance  of  a  coal 
seam  is  that  of  an  aqueous  deposit.  Examine  it  where  you 
choose — among  the  Appalachian  metamorphic  centers  or  at  any 
point  in  the  undisturbed  beds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  pocketed 
in  prairie  lands  or  stored  in  the  everlasting  hills,  or  in  that  grand- 
est and  greatest  of  coal  fields  stretching  from  Mexico  to  the 
north  polar  sea — you  cannot  close  your  eyes  to  the  universal 


388  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

evidence  that  all  these  coal  seams  were  planted  at  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  and  not  in  a  peat  swamp  at  its  surface  level. 

It  is  everywhere  planted  immediately  upon  a  sea-formed  bed. 
Thin,  aqueous  seams  or  partings  run  through  it,  and  a  sea-formed 
bed  is  planted  upon  it.  And,  if  the  coal  in  the  very  center  of 
these  deposits  is  a  vegetable  product,  there  is  no  human  eye  that 
can  tell  where  the  sea  deposit  ends  and  swamp  formation  begins. 
Every  day,  almost,  I  meet  with  these  evidences.  Sometimes  a 
limestone  stratum  is  almost  the  immediate  covering  of  a  coal 
seam,  and  again  almost  its  immediate  base.  But  limestone 
formations  were  deposited  in  the  quiet  seas.  There  are  in  this 
part  of  Ohio  more  than  a  dozen  coal  seams,  and  extending  from 
here  to  the  Ohio  River,  Belmont  County  is  underlain  with  a 
dozen  heavy  lime-rock  strata,  and  these  are  interspersed  among 
the  coal  beds;  and,  more  frequently  than  otherwise,  they  are  in 
close  proximity  to  the  coal.  Vegetarians  say  these  things  require 
that  the  "  waters  of  the  ocean  should  be  very  near."  This  forced 
admission  is  more  amusing  than  philosophic,  and  yet  I  must  agree 
to  it.  The  waters  of  the  ocean  were  very  near — very. 

BOULDERS. — Again  and  again  boulders  are  found  embedded 
in  the  coal  in  such  position  as  to  show  that  they  were  carried  to 
the  spot  in  floating  ice,  or  trees,  at  the  very  time  the  bed  was 
forming.  This,  as  any  one  can  see,  demands  that  the  bed  was 
forming  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  In  the  museum  at  Columbus 
is  a  boulder  found  in  the  midst  of  a  coal  seam.  It  was  torn 
from  its  native  crystalline  bed,  worn  and  glaciated  by  ice,  before 
it  was  imbedded  in  the  coal.  Our  State  geologist  says,  "  Ice 
transport  would  seem  almost  necessary  for  such  a  block,"  and 
all  agree  that  the  waters  in  which  it  was  transported  "  were  very 
near." 

Why  should  it  be  "  almost  necessary  "  for  ice  to  be  involved 
in  the  transportation  of  ice-worn  and  ice-borne  boulders?  Sim- 
ply because  a  fuller  concession  involves  the  reputed  origin  of  coal 
in  irretrievable  contradiction. 

COAL  PARTINGS. — I  would  I  had  an  hour  to  devote  to  the 
consideration  of  the  thin,  laminated  partings  in  coal,  sometimes 
not  thicker  than  paper,  frequently  not  the  eighth  of  an  inch,  and 
sometimes  half  an  inch,  extending  over  thousands  of  square  miles. 
There  is  not  a  living  man  who  can  account  for  the  mysterious 
features  of  these  partings  by  the  current  theory  without  oppos- 
ing law  and  reason.  If,  for  instance,  the  lower  bench  of  a  di- 
vided seam  is  a  product  of  vegetation,  the  roots  of  which  were 
planted  in  the  clay  bed  below,  where  is  the  root  bed  or  the 


Appendix.  389 

upper  bench?  In  a  clay  parting  of  half  an  inch  thickness?  Where 
is  the  vegetation  that  this  thin  clay  or  sand  parting  ought  to 
have  involved,  as  it  accumulated  over  the  swamp  plant,  etc.? 
Blades  and  twigs  and  moss  stems  should  rise  vertically  through 
such  partings,  for  the  mud  and  sand  must  have  been  deposited 
around  them.  But  the  vegetation  was  not  there!  There  can  be 
but  one  conclusion:  These  partings  would  showr  the  vegetation, 
if  it  had  been  there. 

NUMEROUS  SEAMS. — We  have  in  Eastern  Ohio  more  than  a 
dozen  coal  seams,  varying  from  a  few  inches  to  nine  or  twelve 
feet  in  thickness.  A  twelve-foot  seam  required  nearly  one  hun- 
dred feet  of  vegetation — so  said  the  illustrious  Dana.  In  Nova 
Scotia  are  more  than  seventy  different  seams;  one  of  them  is 
thirty-five  feet  thick,  another  fifteen,  and  another  twelve.  Two 
hundred  and  forty  feet  of  accidental  soot  or  unconsumed  carbon, 
according  to  the  current  theory,  escaped  the  peat  bed  combina- 
tion and  formed  Nova  Scotia's  heaviest  bed  of  coal.  More  than 
one  hundred  seams  are  found  in  England.  According  to  the  cur- 
rent theory,  each  bed  records  a  submergence  of  a  peat  swamp, 
and  subsequent  re-elevation — a  re-elevation  just  above  the  ocean's 
level,  seventy  or  one  hundred  times,  is  a  remarkably  accommo- 
dating series  of  telluric  changes. 

Now,  let  us  take  another  glance  at  the  annular  system.t 
You  see  it,  darkened  by  carbonaceous  rings,  bands  or  belts,  every 
one  of  which  must  fall  to  the  earth  as  a  great  installment  of  car- 
bon, and  each  must  float  away  and  be  deposited  in  the  sea.  If 
it  be  a  true  representation,  it  first  corrects  the  impression  that 
the  formation  of  carbon  beds  belongs  exclusively  to  any  age. 
While  certain  periods  or  ages  are  characterized  by  a  more  abund- 
ant downfall  than  others,  it  is  plain  that,  as  smoke  and  vapors 
of  water  are  so  nearly  of  the  same  gravity,  all  aqueous  vapor  of 
the  igneous  age  must  have  more  or  less  been  mixed  with  car- 
bonaceous matter.  The  geological  record  is  positive  in  the 
declaration  that  carbon  was  more  or  less  deposited  in  all  geo- 
logic times,  from  the  very  day  in  which  the  heaviest  form  of 
graphite  fell  and  was  buried  in  the  heavy  metalliferous  beds  ot 
archaean  time  to  that  grand  deluge  of  modern  time,  yet  living  in 
the  traditions  of  man.  We  can,  therefore,  no  longer  marvel  at 
the  number  of  carbon  or  coal  veins.  As  superaerial  carbon  and 
other  matter  must,  under  law,  fall  largely  in  the  polar  regions, 
we  can  no  longer  wonder  why  the  number  of  coal  beds  increase 
toward  the  North;  no  longer  wonder  that  heavy  deposits  of  coal 
were  made  in  lands  now  locked  up  in  eternal  ice. 


390  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

EQUATORIAL  COALS. — If  coal  be  a  vegetable  product,  then 
surely  in  those  regions  of  the  earth  where  vegetation  in  all  time 
has  been  the  most  luxuriant  we  should  find  the  greatest  develop- 
ment of  coal.  Then,  if  we  find  such  vast  beds  as  I  have  before 
alluded  to,  in  the  latitude  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Mackenzie,  in  the  hill  lands  of  Siberia,  what  must  we  expect  to 
find  in  tropical  lands,  under  the  equator?  But  where  is  the  coal 
of  the  tropics?  It  is  rather  scarce.  Now,  can  it  be  possible  that 
there  has  never  been  an  opportunity  offered,  in  the  perpetual 
oscillation  of  sea  and  land,  that  the  vegetarian  claims  for  swamp 
and  peat  formation  in  the  tropics?  Have  the  equatorial  lands 
during  these  subsidences  and  elevations  always  been  too  deeply 
covered  with  water,  or  elevated  so  far  above  the  waves 
as  not  to  permit  swamp  vegetation  and  coal  formation? 
Why  were  all  these  wondrously-accommodating  changes  of 
sea  level  confined  to  colder  regions?  What  a  happy  circum- 
stance it  would  be  if  the  vegetarian  could  point  to  such  great 
coal  basins  in  the  tropics  as  we  find  almost  everywhere  beyond 
them!  Now,  if  he  could  do  this,  it  would  be  a  bad  thing  for  the 
annular  theory.  I  would  be  forced  to  admit  that  it  essentially 
failed  in  one  particular,  and  was  therefore  a  failure.  But  here, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  graphite,  the  coal  is  nearly  absent  from  the 
very  lands  which  the  new  theory  claims  must  contain  the  least. 
Tellurio-cosmic  matter  could  have  fallen  directly  in  very  limited 
quantities  in  the  equatorial  regions,  more  largely  in  the  temper- 
ate zones,  and  in  the  greatest  quantities  in  the  frigid  zone.  This 
is  susceptible  of  the  clearest  mathematical  and  philosophic 
demonstration.  All  the  coal  that  lies  within  the  tropics  must 
have  been  borne  thither  as  carbon  dust  from  other  lands  or  other 
waters,  and  all  the  coal  in  these  lands  must  necessarily  have  the 
least  specific  gravity.  Those  coals  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
north  temperate  zone  will  in  turn  be  found  specifically  lighter 
after  a  fair  test  (and  an  elimination  of  foreign  matter)  than 
those  in  the  northern  part,  and  the  nearer  we  approach  the 
polar  world  the  heavier  and  purer  we  will  find  the  coal.  I  will 
give  the  theory  over  to  these  final  and  decisive  tests.  If  the  at- 
mosphere were  filled  with  cosmic  dust  to-day  this  matter  would 
fall  most  rapidly  at  the  poles,  because  gravity  there  is  the 
strongest.  In  addition  to  this,  the  centrifugal  force  in  the  rotat- 
ing mass  at  the  equator  would  somewhat  check  its  fall  there. 
The  upward  currents  of  air,  also,  in  the  torrid,  and  the  downward 
motion  in  the  temperate  and  frigid  zones  are  distinct  causes 
operating  to  decrease  the  fall  under  the  equator  and  increase  that 


Appendix.  391 

at  the  poles.  But  terrestrial  belts,  like  those  of  the  Jovine  and 
Saturnian  worlds,  would,  according  to  law,  move  from  the  equa- 
tor to  the  poles  before  they  came  down  into  the  lower  air.  For 
this  very  reason,  then,  the  annular  theory  would  utterly  fail 
if  coal  were  found  more  abundantly  in  lower  latitudes  than  the 
middle  temperate  regions.  It  would  fail  if  we  did  not  find  it  in 
abundance  in  extreme  polar  lands.  It  would  fail  if  the  northern 
coals  were  not  heavier  and  purer  in  carbon.  Now  the  vegetation 
theory  utterly  fails  to  explain  these  anomalies,  and  its  advocates 
will  grope  in  darkness  and  error  as  long  as  they  cling  to  it.  Long 
ago  I  predicted  that  great  beds  of  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal 
would  be  found  in  coming  ages  to  underlie  the  great  basin  and 
plateau  of  British  America.  England,  in  the  possession  of  that 
vast  territory,  is  richer  than  if  she  owned  all  the  gold  mines 
in  the  world.  These  are  only  some  of  the  decisive  tests  of  the 
correctness  of  this  theory.  Their  name  is  legion.  I  will  select 
one  more  and  close  this  evidence. 

CAKBON  IN  ICE. — The  aqueous  vapors  above  the  firmament 
must  have  fallen  in  the  polar  world  as  terrific  downfalls  of  snow. 
The  black  carbonaceous  matter  of  the  system  must  have  fallen 
with  them.  Such  a  downfall  to-day  in  the  polar  regions  would 
soon  dissipate  the  great  polar  ice  caps,  on  account  of  their  ab- 
sorbing solar  heat,  and  the  extreme  arctic  and  antarctic  climate 
would  be  so  ameliorated  that  vegetation  would  cover  all  their 
land  areas  as  it  did  the  great  northern  continent  in  pre-glacial 
times.  A  slight  downfall,  however,  would  not  affect  climate  to 
any  great  extent.  The  northern  snows  that  formed  into  glacier 
ice  would  also  contain  the  carbon  dust.  But  if  we  should  find 
great  carbon  beds  frozen  up  in  everlasting  snow  and  ice,  is  there 
any  man  upon  this  planet  who  would  claim  that  it  was  a  vegeta- 
ble product?  But  these  ice-imprisoned  beds  are  simply  facts  of 
ocular  demonstration.  To-day  carbon  beds  may  be  found  along 
the  shores  of  the  north  polar  seas.  On  the  coast  of  Kotzebue 
Sound  rise  masses  of  ancient  glacier  ice  above  the  waves.  This 
ice  is  planted  on  seams  of  carbon,  and,  what  is  more  astonish- 
ing, just  beneath  the  carbon  beds  are  solid  beds  of  ice,  extending 
downward  as  far  as  the  ocean  waves  have  permitted  examination. 
Now  what  does  this  mean?  We  might  find  carbon  beds  in  rocks 
baked  and  crystalline  under  the  reign  of  fire,  and  imagine  it  the 
product  of  vegetation.  But  here,  in  the  snow-bound  islands  of 
the  polar  deep,  packed  in  eternal  ice,  ice  above  and  ice  below, 
we  will  bury  the  old  theory  and  erect  the  new.  There  it  is,  just 
as  the  annular  theory  demands.  Carbon  beds  found  planted  upon 


392  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

a  pavement  of  ice,  just  where  the  new  theory  wants  to  find  it, 
and  just  where  the  old  does  not  want  to  find  it. 

A  vast  fund  of  carbon  is  found  deeply  buried  in  the  frozen 
mud  and  sand  in  Northern  Siberia.  At  Yakutsk,  and  in  other 
places,  deep  wells  have  been  dug  or  bored,  and  the  deepest  have 
never  reached  the  limit  of  eternal  frost.  The  strata,  so  far  as 
the  auger  has  explored,  are  alternating  beds  of  frozen  sand, 
frozen  mud  and  frozen  carbon,  of  course  called  peat.  It  is  said 
that  this  part  of  Siberia  is  solidly  frozen  to  a  depth  of  at  least 
six  hundred  feet.  Can  it  be  possible  that  the  earth  could  have 
frozen  to  that  depth  after  the  carbon  beda  grew  as  peat  vegeta- 
tion? It  cannot  be.  These  beds  must  have  frozen  as  they  were 
built  up.  Did  peat  grow  in  that  way?  Thus,  in  every  nook  and 
corner  of  the  earth,  we  find  the  strongest  evidence  of  the  trutk 
that  the  various  forms  of  carbon  now  found  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth  is  almost  wholly  a  primitive  product  of  igneous  time. 
But  let  us  remember  that  the  coal  question  is  only  a  small  part 
of  the  grand  problem.  The  annular  theory  had  been  proven  to 
be  true  before  the  coal  was  ever  thought  of  in  connection  with  it. 

A  little  reflection  will  now  lead  you  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  only  difference  between  the  geologists  ot  to-day  and  myself 
is  that  they  pull  one  way;  I  pull  the  other.  We  all  started  i» 
the  same  direction.  I  am  going  the  same  way  that  I  started. 
We  parted  company  on  the  confines  of  paleozoic  time.  At  that 
point  they  said  all  the  matter  in  the  earth's  primeval  atmosphere 
fell  previous  to  that  time.  I  said  but  a  small  part  of  it  had  theu 
fallen,  and  the  rest  remained  revolving,  as  the  Saturnian  rings 
are  to-day.  The  difference  between  us  in  the  beginning  seemed 
slight,  indeed.  How  easy  it  would  have  been  to  have  admitted 
the  truth  then!  Had  it  been  done,  almost  every  department  of 
physical  science  would  be  to-day  a  century  further  on  its  way. 
But,  slight  as  the  difference  was  in  the  beginning,  there  has  bee* 
a  great  divergence  in  the  lines  to  important  conclusions.  One 
has  led  to  error  and  falsehood;  the  other  to  immaculate  truth. 

The  old  school  utterly  fails  to  explain  some  principal  ques- 
tions in  geology;  the  new  challenges  the  presentation  of  a  geo- 
logic question  it  cannot  explain.  The  former  antagonizes  law; 
the  latter  demonstrates  and  defends  it. 

.  Now,  if  need  be,  I  will  set  the  carbon  question  aside  and 
prove  the  truth  of  this  theory  from  other  geological  evidence 
without  its  aid.  Nay,  the  whole  field  of  geological  evidence  may 
be  disregarded,  and  the  theory  proven  by  astronomical  science, 
backed  by  mathematical  law.  Or,  if  you  choose,  we  will  set  aside 


Appendix.  393 

all  scientific  evidence,  and  the  first  eight  chapters  of  Genesis 
will  champion  the  cause  and  prove  its  truth,  even  to  a  world  of 
Voltaires,  Paines  and  Ingersolls.  Oh,  the  grandeur  of  this  amaz- 
ing field  of  thought!  I  invite  you  to  enter  this  untrodden  re- 
gion. If  we  do  not  explore  it,  let  me  assure  you,  other  men  will 
do  it  in  other  times.  I  have  put  my  hand  to  the  work:  I  cannot 
turn  back,  and  shall  welcome  all  men  to  my  assistance.  I  have 
already  detained  you  too  long,  but  I  knew  it  was  to  the  teachers 
of  these  times  that  I  must  expect  to  delegate  the  charge  and 
championship  of  this  theory,  that  must  meet  the  marshaled  hosts 
of  veterans  that  will  oppose  it.  The  young  and  unfettered  in- 
tellects of  this  and  coming  days  will  see  the  ruins  of  the  old 
theory.  But  the  change  will  be  slow.  Twenty-five  years  ago, 
when  I  began  to  advocate  the  annular  theory,  men  smiled  over 
the  attempt  of  a  young  man  to  claim  the  discovery  of  anything 
new  in  geologic  or  astronomic  science;  and  when  their  attention 
was  directed  to  the  annular  system  of  Saturn  as  the  grand  key 
that  unlocked  the  deep  mysteries  of  planetary  evolution,  they 
said  there  was  no  force  in  the  claim.  When  told  that  the  primi- 
tive earth,  molten  and  beaming  as  a  aun,  necessitated  ring 
formation,  and  that  astronomers  and  geologists,  in  their  reck- 
oning, had  never  taken  into  account  the  potential  energy  stored 
up  in  the  annular  vapors  revolving  on  high,  in  that  day  of 
fervent  heat,  they  still  remained  silent.  When  asked  how  the 
oceans  returned  to  the  earth,  after  they  hung  for  unknown  time 
thousands  of  miles  beyond  the  atmosphere  of  the  day,  still  no 
answer  came.  When  told  that  the  oceans,  in  great  part,  fell  to 
the  earth  in  deluges  of  terrific  violence  in  modern  geologic  time 
(sub-silurian),  the  idea  was  visionary  and  anti-scriptural.  When 
told  that  the  coal  deposits  of  the  world  could  be  nothing  more 
nor  less,  under  the  demands  of  law,  than  aqueous  deposits  of 
primitive  carbon  distilled  in  Vulcan's  mighty  alembic,  and  which 
was  sent  up  amid  the  aqueous  vapors  where  it  became  a  hydro- 
carbon, thoughtful  men  began  to  think;  others  turned  away  to 
laugh. 

When  scientists  put  forth  the  astounding  information  that 
a  mighty  ice  sheet,  thousands  of  feet  thick,  pushed  down  from 
the  far  north  and  leveled  our  hills  and  filled  our  valleys,  oblit- 
erating rivers  and  lakes,  and  they  were  told  that  such  a  fund 
of  snow  must  have  fallen  from  telluric  rings  of  vapor  in  the 
polar  regions,  some  men  said  a  profound  mystery  has  been 
solved ;  others  said,  "  Oh,  no."  Finally,  when,  in  1874,  I  published 
a  little  volume  presenting  some  of  these  questions  more  generally 


394  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

to  the  public  eye,  and  especially  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  great  deluge  of  Noah  was  a  down-rush  of  the  last  remnant 
of  annular  waters,  I  received  some  of  the  most  flattering  com- 
mendations on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  some  of  the  most 
excoriating  and  denunciatory  criticisms  for  thus  "  treading  on 
holy  ground." 

Now  what  is  the  result  of  not  admitting  the  unavoidable 
conclusion  that  the  oceans  did  not  and  could  not  all  fall  in  prim- 
eval times?  I  need  not  tell  you.  You  see  the  world  is  hard  to 
be  moved,  but  it  does  move  none  the  less,  and  let  me  tell  you, 
though  the  thought  may  savor  of  vanity,  it  is  moving  into  a  new 
orbit.  It  is  ripening — ripening  for  a  golden  age  of  thought.  It 
is  drifting  to  the  border-land  of  the  annular  theory.  How  could 
it  be  otherwise?  Law,  eternal  and  inexorable  law,  is  its  founda- 
tion, and  thither  it  must  gravitate. 

In  conclusion,  then,  let  me  say  I  have  passed  over  this  amazing 
field  of  thought  so  often,  and  have  found  so  much  incontroverti- 
ble evidence  that  I  no  longer  care  for  nor  fear  opposition,  come 
from  what  source  it  may. 

This  world  was  once  surrounded  by  an  annular  system.  The 
coal  now  sleeping  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  was  a  part  of  that 
system.  See  the  amazing  wisdom  of  God  in  thus  gathering  it 
from  the  fiery  center  of  the  earth  for  man,  storing  it  away  near 
the  surface,  where  alone  he  can  get  at  it.  Had  the  earth  never 
been  in  an  igneous  state,  all  the  carbon  must  have  been  dis- 
seminated through  the  entire  earth,  and  there  could  not  have 
been  a  true  coal  bed.  When  men  will  open  their  eyes  and  look 
they  must  see  that  the  burning,  smoking,  boiling  and  seething 
earth  must  have  made  measureless  quantities  of  unconsumed 
carbon,  and  they  must  see  that  they  have  been  clinging  to  and 
preaching  a  pernicious  error.  Geology  will  then  be  placed  upon 
its  true  and  immutable  foundation.  Genesis  will  then  stand  the 
test  of  philosophy  in  the  view  of  all  men.  Revealed  and  natural 
religion  will  walk  hand  in  hand,  and  even  the  skeptic  must  see 
that  the  first  eight  chapters  of  Genesis  contain  in  simple  but 
unmistakable  terms  a  complete  and  positive  demonstration  of 
the  annular  theory,  thus  conveying  in  the  noblest  thoughts  some 
of  the  grandest  truths,  revealing  an  Edenic  world  the  most  fas- 
cinating, and  a  sunlight  the  purest  that  ever  illumined  the  world. 
Oh, haste  that  glad  time!  Haste  the  day  and  the  hour  when  the 
unnatural  conflict  between  the  theologian  and  scientist  will  cease 
forever;  when  the  discordant  elements  may  be  allowed  to  rest  in 
the  calm  repose  of  death;  when  man,  fallen  and  weak,  may  arise 


Appendix.  395 

more  nearly  in  the  image  of  God,  the  great  Philosopher  and 
Architect  of  the  material  universe,  whose  mighty  hand  has  ruled 
the  evolving  world  in  all  time,  whether  swaddled  in  flames  and 
rocked  in  a  cradle  of  fire,  or  blooming  in  the  pure  sunlight  of 
eternal  day. 


CAPTAIN  CARTER'S  ORIGINAL  DEMONSTRATION. 

On  page  27  of  this  volume  is  a  simple  calculation,  showing  the 
distance  of  a  terrestrial  ring  from  the  earth's  surface.  Prof. 
Carter  took  up  the  same  calculation  and  obtained  the  same  re- 
sult within  a  very  few  decimals,  and  with  this  calculation  sent 
the  following  demonstration  by  a  new  and  original  method. 
These  calculations  prove  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that 
vapors  in  the  primitive  atmosphere,  at  the  distance  of  about 
20,000  miles  from  the  earth's  center,  had  a  velocity  in  revolution 
that  kept  them  there,  while  those  vapors  nearer  the  earth  fell, 
and  hence  the  earth  had  a  ring  or  rings.  Thus  it  is  susceptible 
of  the  clearest  mathematical  and  philosophical  demonstration 
that  this  earth  was  once  surrounded  by  a  system  of  Saturn-like 
rings  and  belts;  that  the  aqueous-formed  crust  was  to  no  small 
extent  built  up  under  its  influence  cannot  admit  of  a  reasonable 
doubt;  and  the  measureless  periods  of  geologic  time  are  thus 
necessarily  shortened. 

PROBLEM.  Required  the  orbital  radius  or  distance  of  a  satel- 
lite of  the  earth,  the  time  of  revolution  being  given. 

Let  f  =  centrifugal  force  of  satellite  (ring),  v  =  velocity  of 
same,  n  =  number  of  seconds  in  time  of  revolution.  R  =  mean 
orbital  radius  of  satellite,  or  distance  from  the  earth's  center, 
g  =  gravity  at  earth's  equator,  g'  =  gravity  at  satellite  or  ring, 
and  P  =  earth's  equatorial  radius. 

27T  R 
Now  V  = from  Mechanic's  formula  (1). 

V2 
Also  f  =  --n-  from  Mechanic's  formula  (2). 

gp2 

Likewise  g' —  -^  from  Mechanic's  formula  (3). 
Substituting  (1)  in  (2)  we  have 
_  47T2 R»  __  47T2R 

:    n»  R    :  n2 

But  f  =  g'  from  the  conditions  of  the  problem, 


396  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

4  it*  R       g  P» 
hence,    — j —  =   -         or  4  7T»  R3  —  g  n*  P* 


And  R  =  ,/*  n2  J 


Now,   in  this  case,    P  =  20,923,600  ft.,   n   =  86,164  second*, 
g  =  32.1937  and  7T  =  3.141592,  and  therefore, 


._     /32. 1937  (86,164)'  (20,923,600)* 

W  4(3.141592)2  z6'61 

times  the  earth's  equatorial  radius,  =  26,194.01  miles. 

R.  K.  CARTER, 

Chester,  Pa. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  PETROLEUM. 
A  LECTURE,  BY  PROF.  I.  N.  VAIL. 


Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  June  21st,  1900. 


In  this  hall,  not  long  ago,  I  listened  to  a  learned  discourse 
by  a  prominent  geologist  of  the  current  school  on  the  origin  of 
the  oily  carbons.  We  were  told  that  the  immeasurable  ocean  of 
oil  now  locked  up  in  the  rocky  bosom  of  Mother  Earth  "  was  cer- 
tainly an  organic  product,  and  that  the  organisms  involved  in  its 
formation  were  principally  fishes."  To  this  I  may  add:  Such 
is  the  prevailing  opinion  of  geologists  to-day,  and,  in  view  of 
the  high  regard  I  have  for  many  workers  in  this  vast  field,  1  am 
not  disposed  to  molest  them  in  their  blissful  attitude,  though 
I  want  to  assure  my  audience  here  to-night  that  I  am  not  pres- 
ent to  talk  on  fish  oil,  but  to  give  some  new  and  burning  testi- 
mony, which  more  than  thirty  years  of  deep  study  of  nature's 
eternal  processes  have  linked  to  my  very  being.  We  have  come 
to  hear  a  lecture  on  the  "  Origin  of  Petroleum,"  or  rock  oil,  a 
mineral  product  of  the  mineral  earth — a  product  with  which,  as 
I  see  it,  never  a  fish  nor  a  mollusk,  nor  any  other  organism, 
either  animal  or  vegetable,  had  the  remotest  connection.  I  hold 
in  my  hand  a  little  book,  published  in  1874.  It  gives,  in  brief, 
the  substance  of  my  earliest  lectures,  delivered  away  back  in  the 
'60's,  in  an  effort  to  prove  that  in  all  geologic  time  the  earth  had 


Appendix.  397 

an  annular  or  ring  system,  such  as  the  planet  Saturn  has  to-day. 
That  the  progressive  collapse  of  that  system  made  all  the  "  ages  " 
and  all  the  "  deluges  "  the  earth  ever  saw.  Also,  that  the  deluge 
of  Noah,  coming  from  that  source,  closed  the  grand  drama  of 
geologic  revulsions. 

With  this  as  our  basic  thought,  I  want  us  to  go  back  in  imag- 
ination to  the  very  morn  of  geologic  time,  to  see  how  the  earth 
got  its  rings,  and  what  they  were  made  of.  We  will  make  the 
attempt,  and  my  word  for  it  now,  we  will  find  that  those  rings 
were  made  out  of  the  fiery  exhalations  that  went  up  to  the 
skies  from  the  molten  earth.  We  know  what  those  exhalations 
were,  for  we  know  what  the  earth's  elements  are  to-day,  and 
her  compounds,  too.  We  know  the  oceans,  vaporized,  were  there, 
and  all  else  of  the  molten  planet  that  inveterate  heat  could 
vaporize  and  sublime,  and  force  into  chemical  activity  and  union. 
We  know,  too,  that  these  fiery  sublimations  went  to  the  ter- 
restrial skies,  and  I  want  to  show  you  that  it  was  just  as 
natural  and  inevitable  for  an  ocean  of  oily  hydro-carbons  to  go 
there  as  an  ocean  of  water,  and  we  all  know  that  all  the  terres- 
trial waters  were  driven  aloft  when  the  earth  was  rocked  in  its 
cradle  of  flame.  Let  us  see. 

In  the  first  place,  I  do  not  oppose  the  claim  that  organic 
decomposition,  by  the  aid  of  heat,  is  competent  to  form  oily 
compounds.  I  do  not  deny  that  fishes  and  crustaceans  can  be 
treated  in  the  chemist's  retort  and  made  to  form  hydro-carbons, 
for  that  is  nature's  process  when  the  necessary  elements  are  at 
hand  for  the  work,  whether  in  the  crucible  of  the  chemist  or 
in  the  world  furnace  of  the  molten  era.  I  simply  oppose  the  con- 
clusion that  geologists  have  drawn  from  this  experiment.  That 
fishes  may  be  thus  made  to  form  oily  products  is  no  testimony 
to  the  claim  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  devonian  and  carbon- 
iferous oceans  made  the  vast  fund  of  petroleum,  or  any  part  of 
it.  For  it  is  a  fact  well  known  to  the  chemists  that  apples  and 
pumpkins,  as  well  as  oysters,  may  be  made  to  yield  hydro-car- 
bons, and  are  we  to  draw  these  innocent  organisms  from  their 
legitimate  field?  It  makes  no  difference  whether  the  hydrogen 
and  carbon  involved  in  the  great  world  process  of  oil-making 
came  from  animal  or  mineral  forms. 

Now,  we  know  that  there  was  an  immeasurable  amount  of 
hydrogen  and  carbon  in  the  molten  earth,  and  we  know  they 
had  no  organic  source.  They  came  from  the  great  unknown 
source  of  elements,  and  the  Great  Chemist  had  them  in  Hia 
retort, — the  igneous  earth, — and  His  fires  raged  about  them  for 


398  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

millions  of  years.  In  the  name  of  law  and  reason,  how  could 
He  fail  to  make  them  combine  in  that  Titanic  furnace,  and  be 
thus  compelled  in  after  ages  to  call  in  the  puny  aid  of  the 
fish?  If  we  are  to  believe  the  prevailing  geologic  proposition,  it 
was  certainly  a  grand  opportunity  lost. 

Let  us  watch  the  gas-maker  and  learn  a  lesson  in  philosophic 
world-making  as  he  fills  his  retort  and  starts  his  fires.  He  may 
fill  it  with  coal,  or  wood,  paper,  hair,  or  even  with  fish.  With 
a  moderate  heat  he  drives  out  the  watery  elements,  and  we  see 
a  jet  of  steam  coming  out  as  the  first  product.  In  a  short  time, 
as  the  heat  is  increased,  this  jet  of  steam  gives  place  to  one 
of  smoke.  This  is  a  form  of  carbon,  and  it  is  readily  oxidized  in 
the  air  and  soon  becomes  invisible.  It  is  burnt  up;  and  here 
we  learn  that  smoke  is  unburnt  fuel.  We  also  learn  from 
analogy  that  if  the  molten  earth  was  a  smoking  world,  it  was 
God's  mighty  fuel-former,  before  a  bud  or  plant  or  an  animal 
existed  on  the  globe.  And  here  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  beyond  a  doubt  a  great  fund  of  unconsumed  car- 
bon went  from  the  molten  earth  to  the  skies,  unless  it  was 
caught  in  an  ocean  of  oxygen  and  burnt  up,  and  this  was  hardly 
possible.  But  let  us  watch  our  retort.  By  raising  the  tempera- 
ture further,  the  jet  becomes  a  light  hydro-carbon,  plus  carbon, 
an  impure  illuminant.  A  still  higher  temperature  expels  a 
heavier  hydro-carbon,  and,  as  the  heat  becomes  intense,  oily  hy- 
dro-carbons supervene.  If,  now,  a  jet  of  superheated  steam  be 
forced  into  the  retort,  all  these  products  are  increased  and  en- 
riched, and  when  the  fires  are  allowed  to  cool,  and  the  retort 
opened,  we  find  a  tarry  form  of  carbon  as  a  residuum,  mingled 
with  asphaltic  or  graphitic  products, —  all  this  done  by  the  puny 
fires  of  the  chemist.  Compared  with  those  of  the  molten  earth, 
we  place  the  infinitely  small  beside  the  immeasurably  great,  and 
ask  what  did  the  great  world-retort  expel  from  its  boiling  and 
surging  entrails? 

Now,  there  are  some  things  known  in  the  proposition  we  have 
in  hand.  It  is  known  that  this  earth,  in  the  dawn  of  geologic 
time,  was  an  igneous,  incandescent  mass;  and,  whether  we  choose 
to  call  it  the  Great  Chemist's  crucible,  a  flaming  sun,  or  scintil- 
lating star,  it  is  all  one  in  the  grand  scheme  of  world  making. 
Fire  held  dynamic  control.  It  is  known  that  carbon  arid  hydro- 
gen were  two  all-abounding  elements  in  that  primitive  furnace. 
It  ia  known  that  carbon  and  hydrogen,  thus  conditioned,  actively 
seek  combination,  and  unless  they  passed  through  a  sea  of  free 
oxygen  on  their  way  to  the  skies,  they  arose  as  oily  products 


Appendix.  399 

of  the  infant  earth  and  filled  the  surrounding  heavens, — light 
carbons,  heavy  carbons,  asphaltic  and  graphitic  carbons;  and  we 
know,  too,  that  all  this  occurred  long,  long  before  the  day  of 
fishes.  It  ia  known  that  the  vaporized  oceans  were  there,  a  world 
of  superheated  steam,  and  took  an  active  part  in  this  plan  of 
world  evolution,  ever  active  and  eager  to  increase  and  enrich 
the  planet's  oily  products.  It  is  known  that  the  resolution  and 
decomposition  of  world  matter  in  its  primitive  stage  is  not  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  matter  in  its  secondary  condition,  except  in 
degree  of  competency;  hence,  if  the  decomposition  of  organic 
matter  can  make  petroleum  in  infinitesimal  quantities  by  bring- 
ing nascent  carbon  and  hydrogen  into  contact,  how  much  more 
must  have  been  produced  when  all  the  hydrogen  and  carbon  of 
the  molten  earth  came  in  contact  for  millions  of  years,  under 
conditions  a  thousandfold  more  adequate  to  effect  rapid  combin- 
ation? It  is,  therefore,  not  so  much  a  question  as  to  the  ability 
of  the  igneous  earth  to  make  oily  compounds,  as  to  how  it  could 
have  failed  to  make  them.  It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to 
deny  the  adequacy  of  the  chemist's  retort  as  that  of  the  molten 
earth,  since  the  selfsame  elements  are  treated  in  the  selfsame 
way — comparing  the  small  with  the  great. 

One  of  the  great  lessons  we  learn  at  the  retort  is,  that  it 
requires  a  great  heat  and  the  presence  of  steam  to  make  true  oily 
hydro-carbons,  even  with  organic  matter  supplied.  A  molten 
world  supplied  inveterate  heat  and  all  the  elements  needed,  and 
the  chemist  can  only  imitate  in  the  most  impractical  way  what 
nature  is  continually  doing  in  millions  of  molten  orbs.  If  the 
geologist  denies  this  universal  process  he  must  also  deny  that 
hydrogen  and  carbon  are  universe  elements,  and  so  far  as  our 
world  is  concerned  it  cannot  be  denied,  and  hence  he  cannot  for 
a  moment  logically  or  reasonably  oppose  the  claim  I  have  made 
that  all  the  petroleum  of  the  earth  was  found  in  the  world 
furnace  when  it  shone  out  as  a  star. 

I  mention  these  things  to  show  you  that  the  claims  I  put  forth 
in  regard  to  the  primitive  igneous  origin  of  petroleum  stand  on 
a  foundation  firm  and  eternal.  Law  is  its  basic  rock,  for  every- 
where we  see  molten  orbs,  and  as  surely  as  carbon  and  hydrogen 
exist  with  them  they  must  combine.  It  is  hardly  possible  that 
conditions  can  exist  on  such  flaming  orbs  to  prevent  their  union, 
and  we  know  their  union  means  the  formation  of  oily  compounds. 
The  only  objection  that  can  be  urged  against  the  thought  is  the 
possible  surplus  of  oxygen  in  such  fiery  centers.  But,  so  far  as 
the  earth  is  concerned,  that  objection  is  forever  brushed  aside  by 


400  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

the  fact  that  there  was  not  enough  oxygen  present  to  saturate 
other  elements  and  burn  up  other  compounds  more  eagerly 
Bought  by  it.  It  united  with  an  immeasurable  sea  of  hydrogen 
to  form  the  waters  of  the  earth — the  vast  oceans  that  now  roll 
around  it.  The  scientist  actually  measures  the  free  oxygen  of 
the  molten  globe  by  the  aid  of  known  conditions,  and  we  cannot 
but  conclude  that  the  primitive  hydro-carbons  were  not  con- 
sumed. They  are  not  consumed  to-day  in  the  hottest  furnace, 
unless  a  blast  of  oxygen  is  forced  through  it.  Millions  of  fires, 
coke-ovens  and  furnaces  are  sending  up  carbons  and  hydro-car- 
bons all  the  time,  and  we  find  these  fire-formed  products  lining 
every  chimney  and  smokestack, — sooty  hydro-carbons  that  take 
fire,  sometimes,  and  burn — and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  burning 
earth  did  the  same  thing,  for  free  oxygen  could  not  have  had 
access  everywhere  into  the  recesses  of  the  smoking  globe. 

This  great  problem  has  other  known  conditions.  We  all  know 
that  the  rock  formation  in  which  oil  is  found  to-day  was  formed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  sea  by  sedimentation — by  the  depositing 
of  matter  which  floated  in  the  ancient  seas.  This  being  the  case, 
the  hydro-carbon  matter  that  settled  in  the  forming  bed  also 
floated  in  the  &ea  at  the  same  time.  It  is  also  well  known  that 
in  many  places  the  oil-bearing  rock  is  utterly  destitute  of  ani- 
mal remains.  Over  wide  areas  not  a  fossil  of  a  fish  or  crustacean 
has  been  found,  and,  what  is  most  apparent,  no  part  of  those 
beds  contain  animal  remains  in  quantities  sufficient  to  make 
even  a  show  of  oil.  In  the  same  field  the  oil  varies  in  specific  grav- 
ity, as  well  as  in  quality.  When  an  oil-bearing  stratum  is  struck 
at  a  moderate  depth,  as  a  rule  the  oil  has  less  specific  grav- 
ity than  that  found  in  the  same  bed  at  a  greater  depth.  The  ad- 
vocates of  the  fish  cannot  explain  this.  Did  the  different  kinds 
of  fish  make  the  different  kinds  of  oil?  On  the  supposition  that 
these  carbons,  the  products  of  different  degrees  of  heat,  floated 
in  the  sea,  it  is  easily  explained,  for  the  heavier  carbons  floated 
into  deeper  water  and  there  settled,  while  the  lighter  floated 
higher  and  settled  on  higher  ground.  Thus  the  waters 
necessarily  assorted  the  different  grades  of  carbon  before 
they  settled,  and  thus  they  are  separated  to-day.  Supposing 
a  fish  should  become  buried  and  heat  and  pressure  should  begin 
the  work  of  decomposition  and  oil-making,  the  light  and  the 
heavy  carbons  become  locked  down  together,  on  the  spot,  with 
no  possible  chance  for  them  to  become  separated. 

My  friends,  we  have  seen  a  world  rocked  in  its  primitive 
cradle  of  fire;  we  have  learned  that  its  waters  were  all  formed 


Appendix.  401 

in  inveterate  flames  by  the  union  of  hydrogen  with  oxygen, 
thus  disposing  with  so  much  of  the  latter  that  the  vast  amount 
of  carbon  escaped  the  devourer,  and  remains  unconsumed  and 
locked  up  in  the  earth's  crust.  As  all  these  compounds  were 
driven  to  the  skies,  we  want  to  know  by  what  process  they 
came  back  to  the  earth.  They  were  made  away  back  in  the 
igneous  era,  and  were  stored  up  in  the  silurian  and  later  beds, 
showing  that  they  remained  in  the  telluric  heavens  for  many 
millions  of  years  after  the  earth  cooled  down.  This  being  the 
case,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  they  revolved  about  the  earth, 
as  an  annular  or  ring  system;  for,  unless  they  did  revolve 
thus,  they  would  have  fallen  as  the  earth  grew  cold.  But  we 
know  the  lapse  of  time  between  the  molten  era  and  silurian 
time  was  immeasurably  vast,  and  it  marks  the  long  interval 
during  which  the  carbons  rode  the  skies.  Now,  they  could  not 
have  remained  on  high  any  more  than  a  stone,  unless  they  re- 
volved about  the  earth,  and  this  means  ring  formation,  for  it  has 
been  practically  determined  that  rotating  vapors  naturally  as- 
sume the  ring  form.  Thus,  it  would  seem  that  the  molten  con- 
dition of  a  planet  is  the  first  step  to  ring  conditions,  for  it  is 
then  that  world  vapors  go  to  the  skies,  until  a  vast  world  en- 
velope of  aqueous  mineral  and  metallic  exhalations  is  formed. 
It  is  simply  impossible  that  such  an  envelope  would  not  form, 
and  we  know  that  the  earth  envelope  contained  hydro-carbons 
to  an  immeasurable  amount.  We  know,  too,  that  the  whole 
fiery  mass  rotated.  This  gave  great  momentum  to  the  perimeter, 
far  in  excess  of  that  of  the  central  mass.  The  perimeter  of  a 
rotating  wheel  moves  faster  than  the  hub.  This  being  the  case, 
the  great  rim  of  the  primitive  earth  could  not  fall  as  the  latter 
grew  cold.  But  it  would  fall  in  after  times  and  form  stratum 
after  stratum  on  the  earth.  For  mechanical  and  philosophic  rea- 
sons, this  great  earth-appendage  must  have  fallen  in  grand  in- 
stalments, like  so  many  dust  clouds,  and  was  carried  to  the 
oceans,  and  borne  by  currents  to  different  parts  of  the  world. 
During  all  the  time  the  carbons  rode  on  high  they  were  neces- 
sarily associated  with  mineral  and  watery  distillations,  and  when 
they  fell  they  were  still  thus  associated  and  came  down  as  vast 
deluges  of  muddy  waters.  Carried  to  the  seas,  they  sank  to- 
gether, and  together  they  formed  oil-bearing  beds.  Many  times 
I  have  seen  oil  from  wells  flow  down  and  float  on  the  surface  of 
the  Ohio  River.  During  high  water  the  mud  particles  of  the 
stream  united  with  the  oil  and  fell  to  the  bottom  of  the  river, 
forming  a  thin  stratum  of  oil-bearing  oo/e.  Let  us  imagine 


402  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

a  world  cloud  of  oily  particles  thus  carried  down  from  on  high 
in  deluges  of  muddy  rains.  Inevitably  they  would  go  to  the 
swamps,  lakes,  seas  and  oceans  of  the  earth,  and  form  oil-bear- 
ing beds.  Imagine  such  a  muddy  mass  of  waters  carried  down 
the  Mississippi  and  deposited  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  mingling 
with  the  beds  now  forming  on  its  bottom,  and  you  can  form 
some  idea  of  how  oil  beds  were  made  of  fiery  sublimations,  first 
formed  in  the  molten  earth  and  driven  to  the  skies,  and  thence 
in  after  ages  returning  to  the  surface  of  the  planet.  Imagine  the 
Gulf  Stream  of  the  Atlantic  as  it  issues  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
laden  with  this  oil-steeped  matter,  and  you  can  see  how  this 
matter,  borne  to  distant  parts  of  the  ocean,  would  become  a  part 
of  strata  now  forming  there. 

Thus,  the  oily  carbons,  formed  in  the  world-alembic  of  the 
Great  Chemist  millions  of  years  before  a  planet  or  a  fish  existed 
on  the  earth,  arose  together  with  other  fiery  distillations;  to- 
gether they  revolved  for  long  ages  while  the  planet  was  cooling;  to- 
gether they  fell  and  became  a  part  of  the  world's  strata,  and 
together  they  lay  in  store  for  the  use  of  man. 

This  being  the  process  by  which  the  earth  became  stored  with 
the  oily  carbons,  it  is  plain  that  the  geologist,  to  be  able  to  be 
of  any  practical  use  in  locating  oil  fields,  must  familiarize  him- 
self as  far  as  possible  with  the  currents  of  the  ancient  seas,  and 
forever  discard  the  fish. 

But  enough  of  that.  You  want  me  to  tell  you  some  facts — 
some  annular  facts  about  the  oil  field  of  Southern  California. 
Well,  I  came  to  Pasadena  in  1887,  and  in  the  summer  of  1888 
I  spent  much  of  the  time  in  search  for  oil  indications,  for  1  had 
become  convinced  that  a  vast  amount  of  oily  carbon  must  have 
Taeen  carried  from  the  northward  into  the  ancient  Pacific  Ocean, 
.and  you  all  know  that  if  that  carbon  fell  in  polar  lands  (and  it 
did  fall  there),  it  must  have  been  floated  into  that  ocean.  Well, 
the  great  currents  from  the  west  and  southwest,  it  seemed  to 
me,  must  have  carried  that  carbon  right  toward  the  coast  of 
Southern  California.  But  where  was  the  coast  then?  The  waters 
of  the  Pacific  at  that  time  dashed  against  the  feet  of  the  Sierras 
in  a  great  semi-circular  curve,  extending  from  the  Santa  Bar- 
bara coast  to  San  Bernardino,  thence  southward  by  the  San  Ja- 
cinto  Mountains.  You  can  see  that  much  of  the  lowland,  even 
the  low  hills  of  Ventura,  Los  Angeles,  and  nearly  all 
of  Orange  County,  and  great  part  of  San  Diego  County 
were  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  into  which  the  ocean 
currents  rushed  with  their  charges  of  oily  carbons.  I  spent  a 


Appendix.  403 

great  deal  of  thought  on  this  feature  of  the  case,  and  became 
convinced  before  I  came  to  California  that  it  was  oil  territory. 
I  reasoned  that  all  the  geological  conditions  were  favorable  for 
the  formation  of  oil  beds  in  the  waters  of  this  great  semi-cir- 
cular gulf,  and  therefore  it  could  hardly  be  possible  that  they 
were  not  formed,  for  we  must  remember  that  our  theory  makes 
oil  a  world- deposit,  and  must  have  been  formed  wherever  cur- 
rents favored  it. 

I  searched  in  fullest  confidence  that  I  was  in  an  oil  field  of 
vast  extent.  In  both  Santa  Barbara  and  Ventura  Counties  I 
found  oil,  not  only  as  it  trickled  from  the  rock,  but  far  out  on 
the  surface  of  the  ocean.  This  was  all  sufficient  to  vindicate 
the  theory;  for  a  single  instance  of  oil  thus  found  was  compe- 
tent to  prove  that  our  hypothetic  currents  had  been  at  work, 
and  if  they  had  been  thus  at  work  on  the  coast  of  that  region, 
it  was  almost  certain  that  they  had  operated  over  the  remainder 
of  the  gulf,  and  more  effectively.  From  Santa  Paula  a  search 
was  made  eastward,  and  a  visit  to  the  oil-steeped  soil  on  Tem- 
ple Street,  Los  Angeles,  proved  still  further  that  an  oil  field  of 
vast  extent  existed  here.  I  then  went  to  the  Puente  Hills,  and 
on  to  the  hills  north  of  Fullerton,  and  found  all  the  evidence 
I  wanted  to  vindicate  the  claim  that  all  the  region  from  the 
mountains  to  the  sea,  and  certainly  extending  far  out  into  the 
ocean,  was  a  great  deposit  of  petroleum. 

Having  made  these  discoveries,  I  went  before  the  Chamber 
of  Commerce  in  Los  Angeles  and  tried  to  move  that  body  to 
institute  an  effort  to  awaken  an  interest  in  them.  But  the 
great  boom  was  collapsing,  and  the  calm  after  the  tempest  made 
my  visit  a  failure.  I  told  that  body  that  petroleum  was  an 
ancient  sea  deposit,  and  the  very  fact  that  oil  oozed  from 
the  hills  was  proof  that  oil-bearing  rock  underlaid  all  the  region 
from  the  hills  to  the  sea,  and  that  the  day  would  come  when 
Southern  California  would  prove  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  oil 
regions  on  the  continent.  The  upheaval  of  the  hills  on  tie  south 
of  the  San  Gabriel  Valley  has  simply  revealed  the  universal  bed 
of  hydro-carbons  that  the  ancient  currents  carried  to  this  region. 
That  sea  in  which  the  oily  carbons  floated  was  a  vast  one,  and 
hence  the  oily  deposit  is  a  vast  one,  too.  We  can  easily  bound 
it  on  the  north,  but  on  the  east,  south  and  southwest  I  cannot 
define  its  limits.  I  have  repeated  in  a  hundred  lectures  that 
the  field  must  be  very  rich  toward  the  south,  but  more  and 
more  barren  toward  the  primary  mountains.  That  wells  could 
be  sunk  far  out  in  the  ocean  with  almost  a  certainty  of  find- 


404  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

ing  oil — why  not?  The  ocean  that  received  the  oil  carbons  from 
the  north  world  must  have  been  almost  a  boundless  one.  The 
same  ocean  rolled  its  carbon-laden  waters  around  the  San  Ja- 
cinto  Mountains,  over  the  Salton  basin  and  great  Colorado  Val- 
ley, and  must  have  deposited  a  great  fund  of  petroleum  there. 
The  same  ocean  and  same  current  swept  over  the  plains  of  West- 
ern and  Southern  Arizona,  and  must  have  planted  some  of  it 
there.  The  same  ocean  penetrated  the  inland  valleys  of  a  great 
part  of  all  the  Pacific  States,  and  in  all  these,  wherever  currents 
from  the  west  could  enter,  oil  certainly  can  be  found,  and  even 
up  to  the  Arctic  Circle. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  add:  In  prospecting  for  oil,  keep  away 
from  the  primary  beds — shun  the  mountains.  They  were  the 
ancient  shore  line,  and  petroleum  could  hardly  settle  in  such 
shallow  waters.  The  hills  in  which  our  oil  is  found  are  geologic- 
ally modern  upheavals.  If  you  find  petroleum  or  asphalt  in  one  of 
those  hills,  it  is  almost  certain  that  all  the  hills  in  that  neighbor- 
hood are  oil-bearing.  In  a  vast  ocean  carrying  primitive  car- 
bons, the  deposit  could  hardly  be  local.  A  trace  of  asphalt  or 
bitumen  simply  shows  the  track  of  old  ocean  bearing  primitive 
hydro-carbons,  and  unless  it  was  of  local  waters,  it  could  hardly 
be  a  local  oil  deposit.  Of  course,  there  are  many  local  deposits, 
and  even  in  a  sea  laden  with  carbons  there  are  necessarily  barren 
spots,  for,  as  I  have  said  before,  these  deposits  depend  altogether 
upon  the  caprice  of  currents.  A  vast  ocean  with  a  vast  world- 
current  seems  to  have  governed  the  formation  of  our  petroleum 
beds.  Fortunate  California! 

Can  you  contemplate  these  things  and  put  any  reliance  what- 
ever on  the  claim  that  petroleum  had  an  animal  origin?  Fishes 
were  not  subject  to  the  course  of  currents  as  primitive  distil- 
lates were,  and  could  not  make  a  barren  spot  in  the  very  midst 
of  an  oil  field.  In  fact,  the  old  theory  of  the  animal  origin  of 
oil  as  it  is  found  in  the  earth's  crust  has  no  support  whatever 
in  fact.  The  idea  is  puerile  and  cannot  stand  the  light  of  in- 
telligent progress. 

Granting  that  the  world  was  molten,  these  fiery  distillates 
follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  Then  the  earth's  ring  system,  made 
out  of  aqueous,  mineral  and  metallic  vapors,  follows  as  a  neces- 
sity. Then  comes  their  progressive  decline  in  the  flight  of  ages, 
and  their  deposit  here,  there  and  everywhere  that  oceans  rolled 
and  currents  presided.  The  first  thing  the  oil  prospector  should 
do  is  to  cast  the  "  fish  story  "  into  the  scientific  dump  heap  and 
study  the  amazing  scheme  of  annular  world  evolution. 


Appendix.  405 

LORD  KELVIN  ON  FREE  OXYGEN. 

In  a  recent  lecture  by  Lord  Kelvin,  that  learned  man  in 
speaking  of  the  vegetable  origin  of  coal,  said:  "When  the  earth 
began  to  cool  it  was  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  nitrogen 
and  carbonic  acid  gases  without  any  free  oxygen."  (Italics  mine.) 

It  is  fitting  that  I  close  this  volume  with  a  few  comments 
upon  this  startling  announcement.  If  there  was  no  free  oxygen 
when  the  earth  began  to  cool  it  was  certainly  very  scarce  for  a 
vast  length  of  time  before  it  began  to  cool.  This,  added  to  the 
millions  of  years  during  which  it  was  cooling,  gives  us  an  im- 
measurable period  when  the  molten  earth  had  no  free  oxygen; 
for,  according  to  this  learned  physicist  and  his  compeers,  there 
is  no  source  of  free  oxygen  other  than  vegetation. 

Standing  upon  this  ground,  it  must  be  an  uncertain  task  to 
determine  in  what  part  of  archsean  time  there  was  enough  free 
oxygen  present  to  burn  up  the  carbon  in  the  molten  earth.  It 
could  not  have  been  burnt  up  during  the  cooling  period,  nor  in 
the  vast  eon  preceding  it;  for  it  takes  free  oxygen  to  burn  car- 
bon, and  hence  it  must  have  been  devoured  in  the  pre-molten 
era.  But  how  and  where  did  that  era  get  its  free  oxygen?  Will 
Lord  Kelvin  supply  it  from  pre-archsean  vegetation? 

Seriously  now,  we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  a  vast 
amount  of  the  earth's  primitive  carbon  was  not  consumed  at  all; 
any  more  than  if  it  had  been  placed  in  a  sealed  retort  and  sub- 
jected to  inveterate  heat.  Even  if  we  have  to  concede  that  some 
time  during  the  earth's  greatest  igneous  activity  free  oxygen  was 
present  we  cannot  for  a  moment  admit  that  it  was  so  plentiful 
and  so  vigilant  that  no  carbon  exhalations  rising  from  the  seeth- 
ing planet  could  escape  unconsumed  into  the  skies.  We  cannot 
accomplish  this  even  by  driving  a  current  of  pure  free  oxygen 
through  our  blast  furnaces;  how  much  less  effectively  would  free 
oxygen  act  in  the  molten  era,  when  trammeled  by  the  presence 
of  an  atmosphere  of  fiery  elements  having  a  more  eager  appetite 
for  oxygen,  than  carbon  has? 

Granting  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  molten  earth  was  rich 
in  carbonic  acid  (free  oxygen  united  with  carbon),  where  was 
the  vegetation  that  supplied  the  oxygen,  if  that  be  its  only 
source?  The  simple  fact  is  that  it  makes  no  difference  what 
the  ancient  or  modern  source  of  oxygen  was,  or  is;  it  could  not, 
as  law  is  supreme,  consume  the  carbon  of  the  molten  earth.  We 
see  great  beds  of  nearly  pure  iron  and  other  metals  left  uncon- 
sumed,  and  these  we  know  rapidly  deflagrate  when  heated  in  free 


406  The  Earth's  Annular  System. 

oxygen.  If  these  metals  escaped,  carbon  could  not  fail  to  be 
gathered  from  the  earth's  inmost  bosom  and  be  borne  as  an  un- 
consumed  fuel  to  the  loftiest  heights  of  the  primitive  atmosphere. 
Especially  must  this  have  been  the  case  if  "  when  the  earth 
began  to  cool  it  was  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  of  nitrogen 
and  carbonic  acid  gases,  without  any  free  oxygen."  It  is  amaz- 
ing to  what  unnatural  conclusions  the  vegetation  theory  leads 
the  scientist.  The  day  is  coming  when  some  stronger  head  than 
this  will  meet  these  ironclad  exponents  of  a  false  philosophy, 
and  show  to  a  laughing  world  what  an  illegitimate  birth  modern 
geology  is.  God  speed  the  day! 


LIST  OF  THE  AUTHOR'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

1.  "  The  Earth's  Annular  System,"  4th  edition;  407 

pages,  illustrated,  cloth.    Price,  $2.50. 

2.  "  The  Misread  Record,"  (The  Deluge)  130  pages, 

cloth.     Price,  $1.00.     Paper,  65  cents. 

3.  "Alaska,   Land  of  Nuggets,    Why?"    68   pages, 

cloth.     Price  $1.00,  paper,  50  cents. 

PAMPHLETS. 

4.  "Eden's   Flaming   Sword.      What    Was  It?"  48 

pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

5.  "The    Coal    Problem."    (Origin    of    Coal),    48 

pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

•6.  "The    Lost    Lake"    (Geological    Problem),    40 
pages.     Price,  25  cents. 

7.  "Ophir's    Golden    Wedge,"    (A   Polar   Puzzle). 

40  pages.    Price,  25  cents. 

8.  "  Waters  Above  the  Firmament."     (Souvenir  re- 

print of  the  author's  first  lecture  on  the  An- 
nular Theory  and  first  published  in  1874,  mailed 
free  to  all  Annular-Canopy  Students). 
"The  Great  Red  Dragon,"  2d  edition.  Manu- 
script, about  150  pages;  to  be  published  when 
there  is  suificient  demand.  The  Dragon  of  all 
mythologies  is  here  shown  to  have  been  the 
«arth-canopy  personified. 

These  works  can  be  had  by  addressing  the 
ANNULAR  WORLD  COMPANY, 

411  Kensington  Place, 

Pasadena,  Cal. 


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